U.S. to Spend $1.7M to Destroy Sarin Tanks

The U.S. Army expects next spring to use a mobile chemical weapons disposal system to destroy three bulk containers filled with the nerve agent sarin at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the Associated Press reported Friday.  One of the tanks leaked a gallon of sarin in August (see GSN, Dec. 7).

The $1.7 million chemical agent neutralization project is expected to last 80 days, finishing in May.

The chemical agent transfer system, based at Aberdeen, Md., to date has not been used to eliminate chemical weapons agent stored at one of the U.S. stockpile facilities.  The device is generally used to destroy nonstockpile material that occasionally turns up around the country.

The Army on Friday reiterated that no sarin vapor escaped the igloo, which had open vents when the leak was discovered on Aug. 27.

“There’s absolutely no way, no indication that any agent escaped,” said Lt. Col. Tom Closs, chemical destruction chief at Blue Grass.  An air flow model and absence of sickened workers prove that claim, he said (Jeffrey McMurray, Associated Press I/WKYT.com, Dec. 7).

The Army issued a press release when the leak was found but only last week acknowledged that it involved 1 gallon of sarin.  The incident is believed to be the largest ever chemical agent leak at Blue Grass.

Area residents complained about the delay in receiving the whole story about the spill, AP reported.

“The press release issued in August did not say this was anything other than the leaks we’ve had in the past,” said Doug Hindman, chairman of the Kentucky Chemical Demilitarization Citizens’ Advisory Commission, which held a meeting Friday on the matter.  “I had people coming up to me saying, ‘What’s going on?’  I would tell them, ‘It happens all the time.’”

The group plans to request that the Army provide full details regarding future incidents.

Closs said the Army “gave what we knew when we knew it” (Jeffrey McMurray, Associated Press II/Lexington Herald-Leader, Dec. 7).

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