Depot to start weekly monitoring of nerve-agent igloos on Monday

This story was published Sun, Mar 18, 2001

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Public confidence still could fall victim to the accident that sickened 34 construction workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in 1999.

But Oregon and Army officials are working to prevent that. Earlier this month, the state's Department of Environmental Quality was given oversight of all chemical weapons stored at the depot.

That means state officials will provide an independent check of the Army's monitoring and handling of the 7.4 million pounds of deadly materials stored at the depot.

But even before that move, the Army had taken steps to increase monitoring to reassure its neighbors after so many construction workers fell ill.

The Army already is surpassing its own monitoring requirements and will continue the practice to ensure neighboring residents are safe, said Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn, depot commander.

Beginning Monday, the shed holding mustard agents, which has been monitored quarterly, will be tested weekly.

So will the 29 remaining storage igloos that still hold bombs, shells and spray tanks filled with the nerve agent VX.

Four igloos housing weapons considered most likely to leak - such as rockets that have leaked and been resealed in new containers - are monitored every day.

In addition, all 49 of the igloos storing nerve-agent-filled rockets are monitored weekly.

The new monitoring schedule makes Dick Marsh's day a little busier.

Marsh, of Echo, is the lab technician who performs much of the testing from inside the mobile air monitors called real-time analytical platforms, or RTAPs.

Each morning, Marsh dons a pair of white coveralls, turns on the power inside the square white van and begins testing the two table-top gas chromotographers used to detect chemical agents.

Before Marsh does any tests inside the bunkers, he must make sure his machines are working properly.

Using a syringe with a long, thin needle, Marsh draws a few drops of clear liquid from a small glass vial. The vials, which are kept in a freezer, are filled with a diluted sarin solution.

Then Marsh puts the nerve agent into the heated, black tubes of the monitor. The heat causes the sarin to vaporize, triggering a flashing red light and a sharp buzzer.

Two monitors are used, so there's always a backup, Marsh said.

"If only one goes off, then it could be an equipment problem," Marsh said. "Two positive readings determine that we have a problem."

The RTAPs are a lot more accurate and reliable, albeit more expensive, than the depot's prior monitoring equipment - big, white, fluffy bunnies.

Belgian rabbits once played the canary for chemical nerve agenst.

Their large blue-black pupils would become pinpoint-sized if the rabbits were placed in an igloo where agent had leaked, said depot spokeswoman Mary Binder.

The practice ended in the late 1980s, Woloszyn said, and the first RTAP was purchased in 1992, at a cost of about $200,000.

The most recent vehicle set the Army back $300,000, Marsh said.

 

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