Meanwhile in Tooele: On Monday, several people working at the Army’s incinerator in Utah were doing routine maintenance when an alarm system designed to detect chemical agent sounded. All the workers were taken to a medical facility and examined. Tests confirmed that one worker was exposed to GB (sarin) chemical agent.Officials at Tooele say the man is fine, that doctors have released him. The other workers apparently were not exposed.
The incident happened when they were cleaning out part of one of the the liquid incinerators. The sarin stockpile at Tooele was destroyed in March, and workers are preparing the facility for the next phase of the operation that will see the destruction of VX agent.
What can we in Calhoun County take away from this incident?
One of the main things to remember is that this is the first confirmed exposure to agent at this incineration site. Also, officials at Tooele seemed to react quickly to the situation, something they have not always done. And, so far at least, Army officials here and in Tooele have been open about the incident, phoning this newspaper and sending out press releases. There has been no attempt to cover this up.
It is also important to note that Tooele is far along in the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile there. A number of mistakes have been made at the facility, and a lot of lessons have been learned from those mistakes. In that regard, Tooele has proven to be a big benefit for the project here. Every single problem at Tooele has been studied extensively here so that new designs and procedures can be put into place to avoid making the same mistake.
When the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot reaches the point when the sarin is destroyed and the VX is being prepared for destruction, you better believe that workers involved in the changeover process will observe any lessons learned from Monday’s incident.
The latest incident at Tooele is a reminder of how dangerous the destruction of chemical agents can be and how careful and diligent workers and managers must remain. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the Tooele facility and hundreds of millions are being spent on the one here. But in the end, money alone is no absolute guarantee of safety.
But we must also remember that it is more dangerous to continue to store the chemical weapons, that they represent a threat to the community by simply sitting there.
