Oregon Rocket found leaking nerve gas at the Umatilla Chemical Depot A quarterly test of munitions turns up an M55 shipping tube with sarin

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

A monitoring crew surveying munitions at the Umatilla Chemical Depot west of Hermiston found a rocket leaking a small amount of nerve gas Monday -- the sixth found this year.

Crews conducting a quarterly test of all 218,000 chemical munitions and containers stored at the depot detected a trace amount of GB, or sarin, inside an M55 rocket shipping tube. The rocket was stored in an earthen bunker.

The leak appeared to be confined within the shipping tube since crews found no vapor inside or outside the igloo, depot spokesman Jim Hackett said. The Army disclosed the leak in a news release Tuesday.

The leaking rocket was to be repacked today and moved into another igloo where leakers are currently stored, Hackett said.

Leaking munitions occasionally are found at the facility. Since October 1984, the Army has reported finding 130 leaking munitions. The last was reported in April, and four previously leaking munitions were found on Jan. 1 to be leaking again, Hackett said.

Army officials cite the deteriorating state of munitions as justification for its $1.2 billion effort to incinerate them by 2004. Environmental groups oppose incineration, saying other manners of disposal should be considered. The Army is scheduled to incinerate all of the depot's 6.6 million pounds of sarin and mustard agents beginning in 2002.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/10/lc_41leak18.frame

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 18, 2000