Sarin vapor detected outside Umatilla bunker

This story was published Tue, Dec 9, 2003

By Kathleen Gilstrap
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- Employees at the Umatilla Chemical Depot donned breathing masks and "sheltered in place" after a low-level release of nerve agent vapor was detected Monday outside a storage bunker.

Depot officials discovered low readings of GB Sarin vapor at about 2:20 p.m. Operations were halted and employees were instructed to mask and shelter in place.

Depot spokeswoman Mary Alice Binder said there was never any danger to the public or environment, and there were no injuries or exposure to the agent.

Employees were cleared to take off their masks and return to work at 2:48 p.m.

Binder said as far as she knows, this was the first vapor detected outside one of the concrete bunkers. That's why employees were told to put on masks and shelter in place.

Three vapor leaks of GB Sarin were detected inside a bunker in a one-month period earlier this fall. Binder said workers wearing protective gear had been inside the bunker earlier in the day with the door open and the vapor may have escaped then.

The bunker holds 750-pound bombs filled with nerve agent.

The depot, 30 miles south of the Tri-Cities, stores 220,604 munitions and containers filled with 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents. The chemicals are set for incineration, perhaps starting as early as next year.

Binder said the incident was confined to a small portion of the depot's nerve agent storage area.

She said officials will investigate the incident further today.

 

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