United States:  Officials Sound Terrorist Alert at Utah Depot

Officials at the U.S. Army Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele, Utah, sounded a terrorist alert yesterday after four soldiers reported seeing a potential intruder (Associated Press/Washington Times, Sept. 6).  Before it began incinerating its stores, the depot held more than 40 percent of the U.S. chemical weapons arsenal (see GSN, July 17; Globalsecurity.org).

During two separate patrols, soldiers spotted the potential intruder within the guarded perimeter of the depot, said Col. Peter Cooper, commander of the depot.  The person fled when soldiers approached, Cooper said.  It is unknown whether the individual was an intruder or a depot employee in an unauthorized area, he added.

“At this time, we cannot confirm an intruder,” he said.  “Right now we are pretty sure we’ve cleared the depot.  We’re not sure if it was an employee who was not in the right area.”

There is no evidence that anything has been stolen from the base or that the potential intruder was linked to terrorism, said a senior Bush administration official.  The security of the depot was never at issue, Cooper said.

“We’re talking about the outer boundary ... he never got close to the chemical storage area at all,” he said (Associated Press/Washington Times).

Officials have called off the search for the suspected intruder, Broadcast News reported today (Broadcast News, Sept. 6).

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United States:  Incinerator Fails Environmental Test

Simulated chemical weapons material burned in tests last month at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon emitted heavy metals in levels that exceed Oregon environmental standards, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 30).

Officials at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said the metals — arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel and antimony — might pose health or environmental concerns.  Spokeswoman Mary Binder for the U.S. Army, which operates the facility, denied that the metals, which were present only in low levels, pose any such concerns.

The Army plans to conduct a full-scale test-burn beginning Friday and extending several days, the AP reported.  Oregon officials, however, have the power to stop the test burns, according to the AP.

“We want to take the time to evaluate the data and to make sure the system is functioning properly,” Oregon environmental official Wayne Thomas said (Associated Press, Sept. 4).

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United States:  Three Weapon Facilities Suffer Setbacks

Chemical weapons facilities in Oregon, a Pacific island and Utah have experienced security and safety lapses this month as well as a setback in a whistleblower lawsuit, according to reports.

A laboratory worker at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon recently left the site with a vial of diluted sarin in his pocket, and no one discovered the error for two hours, the Associated Press reported last week (see GSN, Aug. 19).

Umatilla officials did not realize that the vial was missing until the 5 p.m. shift change, said Army spokeswoman Mary Binder.  “Two supervisors changing shifts counted the samples and noticed one missing,” she said.

By the time officials noticed error, the worker was returning to the depot with the vial, which is used to test the depot’s air monitoring system, Binder said.  There was never a threat to the public, she added.

Even with no public health hazard, Army officials “take this very seriously,” Binder said.  The Army plans to immediately make changes to “track [agent] more closely,” she said (Associated Press, Aug. 27).

VX Released at Pacific Island Incinerator

At the chemical weapons incinerator on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific, VX nerve agent escaped earlier this month at levels 45 times the service’s permitted limit, InsideDefense.com reported last week.

On Aug. 12, workers at the Johnston Atoll incinerator were processing secondary waste sludge when an alarm sounded indicating the presence of a chemical agent.  The waste had already been in the incinerator for 2 1/2 hours and monitored in an airlock room for more than 20 minutes, according to InsideDefense.com.  The alarm sounded soon after workers moved the waste from the airlock room, and once it sounded, workers returned the waste to the airlock room and then to the incinerator, the Army document says.

Tests indicated that the waste contained agent at 45 times the allowed limit for VX in a solid, the document says.  The VX might have still been present in the waste because of its hardened state, according to the document.

“This thick, hardened state, similar to the consistency of bricks, may have caused portions of the sludge to go through the furnace unburned,” the Army document says.

Since the alarm went off while the waste container was out of the airlock room, it “is probable that trace amounts of VX were released into the environment before the container was returned to the discharge airlock,” the document says, adding that the amount released probably would not threaten the environment (Lara Beaven, InsideDefense.com, Aug. 27).

Whistleblower Wins Judgment Against Army

At Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, a whistleblower who raised safety concerns has won a $1.5 million judgment against the Army over personnel actions the service took against him, the Federal Times reported last week.

David Hall, a civilian chemist at Dugway, filed a complaint against the Army for harassment and for forcing him to retire after he made claims about improper handling of hazardous materials at the site.

Hall said the ruling, issued by a U.S. Labor Department administrative judge, “cleared me of all the character assassination that the Army had done for years, and that really was important.”

The Army plans to appeal the ruling, Dugway spokeswoman Paula Nicholson said.

“Despite the judge’s ruling, we still believe that the actions taken by leadership at Dugway regarding Dr. Hall were lawful and appropriate,” Nicholson said.  “We have initiated a petition for review regarding the judgment” (Deborah Funk, Federal Times, Aug. 26).

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