United States I:  Chemical Leak Discovered at Pine Bluff Arsenal

A dangerous chemical leak was detected Monday at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas after a worker there suffered a minor burn, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported today (see GSN, May 21).

Preliminary reports indicated that a solution containing sodium hydroxide — a chemical commonly used in industrial applications to neutralize acids — leaked from a valve and into a local creek, according to Ann Gallegos, public affairs officer for the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

The material that leaked from the valve was a “diluted solution with an 18 percent concentration” of sodium hydroxide, the Commercial reported.  The worker was treated for the burn and returned to work yesterday.

“What they’re saying is that it was some type of leak or a discharge, but the source has been corrected,” Gallegos said, noting that amount of chemicals leaked was not sufficient enough to warrant a report to the Environmental Protection Agency (Scott Loftis, Pine Bluff Commercial, June 18).

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United States II:  Pentagon Awards Chemical Weapon Destruction Contract

The U.S. Department of Defense last week selected two contractors to destroy the 524-ton chemical weapons stockpile at Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky (see GSN, Jan. 3).

The Pentagon awarded the project to a joint venture of two California firms, Bechtel National and Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group.  The task of building, operating and closing the weapon destruction facility is expected to last 10 years and cost $2 billion, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

Bechtel currently holds the contracts for destroying chemical weapons at Aberdeen, Md. (see GSN, May 15) and Pueblo, Colo. (see GSN, July 25, 2002), while Parsons is responsible for eliminating the VX stockpile at Newport, Ind. (see GSN, Nov. 19, 2002).

The firms will eliminate stocks of mustard agent, VX and GB (sarin) using a neutralization process, in which warm water and caustic solutions break down the weapons agents.

The Army has already begun talks with state agencies to seek approval for the construction of nonweapons support facilities at the plant.  “If the regulatory authorities will allow that, which we think they are going to do, they could be pushing dirt over there by late summer or early fall,” said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a national group that promotes disposing of chemical weapons without incineration.

The design for the neutralization facility itself could be finished in a couple of months, Williams said (Greg Kocher, Lexington Herald Leader, June 17).

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