A small cache of World War I-era chemical munitions containing the choking agents phosgene and chloropicrin has been eliminated in Hawaii, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, April 9).
The weapons were found between 2004 and 2006 at the U.S. Army's Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. The Army spent $7 million to destroy the weapons, one by one, in a device known as the Transportable Detonation Chamber. The weapons are placed intact within the machine and blown up, leaving fragments that are set for treatment and disposal in Washington state.
No chemical material escaped the detonation chamber, the Army said.
"From the very beginning of this process, we have emphasized that safety is paramount, and we've stayed true to that focus," said Col. Matthew Margotta, commander of the U.S. Army Garrison in Hawaii (Associated Press/Army Times, Aug. 1).
Meanwhile, the Umatilla Chemical Depot said yesterday that a small amount of mustard agent had leaked inside two storage structures at the Oregon facility, the Tri-City, Wash., Herald reported (see GSN, July 18).
No vapor escaped the storage igloos. Following the discovery yesterday, workers added an additional filter system to the passive filtration technology already in use on the structures, said depot spokesman Bruce Henrickson.
The depot plans to find, check, cleanse and fix the leaking bulk containers. The site stores more than 2,000 of the 1-ton containers, which sometimes leak during summer, when temperatures more regularly rise above the 59-degree Fahrenheit freezing point of mustard agent (Mary Hopkin, Tri-City Herald, July 31).