Depot to Discuss Chemical Disposal

By Ashlee Clark, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Dec. 7–RICHMOND — Blue Grass Army Depot officials will meet today with a citizens’ group to propose destroying corroding containers of nerve agent that caused the largest leak in the depot’s history.

Three members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation have expressed alarm about the scope of the leak, which was detected Aug. 27, and questioned whether officials properly disclosed the event to the community.

The Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board will discuss the Army’s proposal to destroy the chemicals at 1:30 p.m. today at Eastern Kentucky University’s Carl D. Perkins Building.

Kevin Flamm, program manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, and Lt. Col. Tom Closs, commander of Blue Grass Chemical Activity, will be present. They will suggest using a system to transfer GB from the three steel ton containers that hold it to a 20-gallon reactor that the Army will bring in. Then the GB would be chemically neutralized.

GB, better known as sarin, is an odorless and tasteless liquid with a consistency similar to water. The substance readily evaporates when it is released from munition, creating a vapor hazard, according to Blue Grass Chemical Activity. The chemical weapons operation at the depot.

GB is not as hazardous as VX, another nerve agent stored there. But it can pose problems in terms of storage, said Craig Williams, executive director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.

The GB, which has been at the depot for decades, originally was stored in a one-ton container. Because the corrosive material was eating away at the bolts on the container, some of the GB was transferred into the two other containers in 2004. Only the original container leaked, but all three are corroding.

When the leak was detected during a weekly check, vents that release humidity in the igloo were open, according to documents from the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection. It was not clear how many days earlier the leak had begun.

Kentucky Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, wrote in a letter Wednesday that the possibility that GB leaked into the atmosphere is “deeply disturbing and demands prompt action and accountability.”

“A number of questions remain unanswered as to the specific time, duration and concentration of the leak and what effect, if any, it may have on the local community,” the lawmakers said in the letter to Dale Ormond, acting director of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.

The letter also says the three expect depot officials to notify their offices, the local Citizens’ Advisory Commission and the news media with a full accounting in writing of any chemical event at the depot within 48 hours of its occurrence.

Depot officials say there was adequate notification to the public of the leak and that the community was not in danger.

An Aug. 27 news release from Blue Grass Chemical Activity states that GB vapor was detected in an igloo during a weekly inspection. Depot officials notified county and state emergency management agencies immediately, the release states.

“There was no lack of public knowledge of the leak starting from the day it was discovered,” Army spokesman Dave Easter said.

Easter said seven media outlets, including the Herald-Leader, reported on the leak.

The Army said the GB leak presented no danger to the community or the environment. During the initial inspection Aug. 27, there was 74 times the allowable level of GB in the igloo. That level later increased to about 85 times the exposure limit.

Officials ran computer models based on the amount of GB vapor released and atmospheric conditions, which showed there was no hazard, Easter said.

Williams said the event shows that the depot should be monitoring the igloos continuously instead of weekly.

“It’s impossible for them to claim none got out of the igloo,” he said.

He said officials should also be able to tell when the leak occurred and how much agent was released from the igloo.

“We should not be left with all these question marks,” he said.

Air monitoring at the depot was the focus of a whistle- blower hearing that ended this week. Donald Van Winkle, a former air systems monitor, says that management retaliated against him after he voiced concerns about problems with chemical agent monitoring.

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