[Newspoetry] Just Another "Routine" Leak

[Mike Lehman]

These folks are upwind from us. I'm just glad they are WAY upwind.
Is this nerve gas Y2k compliant?
Mike

A trace of nerve agent
               leaks at Umatilla

               Officials say the liquid GB Sarin was contained in a
               storage bunker and did not escape into the
               atmosphere

               Sunday, January 2, 2000

               By Michelle Cole of The Oregonian staff

               Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Eastern
               Oregon detected a trace amount of nerve agent leaking
               inside an aboveground storage bunker Saturday.

               The leak was contained in the bunker and did not escape
               into the atmosphere, officials said.

               "There is absolutely nothing that the public needs to be
               concerned about," said Kym Cazier of the state's
               Chemical Stockpile Awareness Program in Pendleton.

               The leak, consisting of a liquid form of the nerve agent
GB
               Sarin, is confined to a concrete bunker. It was detected
               during routine monitoring about 9:30 Saturday morning.

               "They're going to monitor the situation until crews go in

               first thing Monday," the depot's spokesman, Jim Hackett,
               said.

               Sarin was unleashed by a Japanese cult in the Tokyo
               subway in March 1995, killing 12 people and injuring
               thousands.

               Congress has ordered the U.S. Army to destroy the entire
               U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, which totals about
               30,000 tons stored at eight bases in the United States
and
               the Pacific.

               An estimated 7 million pounds of military nerve gas
               weapons and World War II-era mustard gas weapons are
               warehoused at the Umatilla site, about 11 miles west of
               Hermiston. An incinerator designed to destroy the
               weapons has been under construction since 1997 and is
               scheduled to begin full operation in October 2001.

               Umatilla officials promptly notified the Oregon Emergency

               Response headquarters of the leak. The state agency
               alerted local 9-1-1 dispatchers and other emergency
               response officials. About 27,000 people live in the area.

               Chemical weapons are stored in 1940s-era "igloos" at the
               depot. The nerve and mustard gas agents are packed in
               thousands of rockets and artillery shells, some of them
               corroding. Leaks confined to the storage bunkers are
               detected three or four times a year, Hackett said.

               This leak came just two days after sirens blared and
               freeway reader boards falsely warned the public of toxic
               releases at the site. The false warnings occurred after
               someone at the Morrow County Emergency Operations
               Center tried to activate signs along Interstate 84 to
alert
               drivers to foggy and icy conditions.

               "It was extremely nervous that day," Hackett said. But
               Saturday's leak, he said, was "very routine for us."


               You can reach Michelle Cole at 503-294-5143 or by
               e-mail at michellecole at news.oregonian.com.