Mid-Columbia gets 1st nerve gas monitors

This story was published Tue, Mar 9, 1999

By Theresa Goffred
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Firefighters in Benton, Umatilla and Morrow counties Monday received a small but critical device meant to help them save lives should lethal nerve agent leak from the Umatilla Chemical Depot near here.

Mid-Columbia firefighters were the first in the nation to get these hand-held monitors - designed to detect airborne nerve agents - in a pilot program dubbed a "milestone" in the Army's chemical weapons disposal campaign.

"These monitors make up the critical piece of the puzzle" in preparing for an accident at the depot, said Hermiston Fire Chief Jim Stearns. "It's a big step forward. We have a long ways to go, but it's a big piece."

Armed with these 5-pound monitors, firefighters can determine if it's safe to respond to emergencies, such as traffic accidents and fires, which might occur during a chemical leak from the depot, where 3,717 tons of nerve agent is stored.

The monitors also can be used to ensure decontamination sites - where victims are cleaned up after an accident - are free of nerve agent. The monitors also allow emergency managers to determine that residents who might be evacuated are heading for areas free of chemical agent.

Though about 30 of the devices have been delivered, firefighters still must undergo about five months of training before they can respond to a chemical accident, Stearns said. The first training session is scheduled March 23. Firefighters not only are trained in how to operate the monitors, but they also must learn how to wear the special protective suits and air respirators that are necessary components of their ensemble during a chemical leak.

Firefighters also will learn how to decontaminate themselves should they become exposed to nerve agent, said Bryan Hopkins from the Oregon Health Division, who heads the training program.

"If one piece is missing, they can't do anything," Hopkins said.

These Improved Chemical Agent Monitors, or ICAMs, cost about $5,000 each and look like a video camera with a long lens. The Army-issue ICAMs normally are used by soldiers.

And the Army has offered to provide these devices, training and maintenance in a program expected to cost about $150,000.

Before the Army's offer of the ICAMs, emergency managers were evaluating other chemical monitoring devices with suppliers from as far away as France. It was expected to have cost up to $1 million to purchase devices from suppliers other than the Army.

So Army officials and emergency managers from as far away as Washington, D.C., heralded the arrival of the ICAMs in Hermiston as a solution achieved by several agencies working as a team.

It's possible that communities surrounding the seven other sites around the country where chemical weapons are stored also would get ICAMs.

The only drawback to the ICAMs is the devices can't be used to monitor every agent stored at the depot, officials said.

The devices can detect all three agents stored at the depot - GB, VX and mustard or blister agent - but they aren't able to detect mustard agent at a low enough level to satisfy Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

And those are the standards fire departments must operate under.

Still, the likelihood of mustard agent leaving the depot is so remote, Army officials say the ICAMs likely never would be used to detect mustard agent anyway. Mustard agent is stored in 1-ton containers which have no explosive devices. GB and VX are stored in land mines, rockets and other explosive devices.

Phil Ferguson, chief of the depot's laboratory support division, said Monday that it would take something "very catastrophic" such as a plane crashing into the mustard containers to force the agent to escape from the base.

"We took it all into account, and we decided we've got to protect for the greatest hazard," Ferguson said.

 

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