The state of Colorado wants strengthened monitoring of the U.S. Army's stockpile of mustard agent weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, the Pueblo Chieftain reported Friday (see GSN, April 2).
It takes too long to detect leaks of mustard vapor inside storage igloos, state Public Health and Environment Department official Doug Knappe said during a meeting last week. Monitoring of weapons in storage is also less stringent than controls intended to be used when a separate Pentagon agency actually begins eliminating the 2,600 tons of mustard agent at Pueblo, he said.
The Army Chemical Materials Agency conducts quarterly monitoring of the igloos that hold 780,000 munitions. The absence of continuous checks means that "it is currently obvious to the state that unquantified amounts of mustard agent are released to the environment," Knappe said.
The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program will handle demilitarization operations at Pueblo, though work is not expected to begin for several years.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will place air monitoring technology at the disposal plant. The federal public health agency does not conduct monitoring of chemical warfare materials in storage, said CDC chemical weapons disposal oversight official Terry Tincher.
Roughly one-quarter of the disposal facilities and technology have been installed, according to Ed Snatchko, construction manager for contractor Bechtel. Walls are being erected at the Enhanced Reconfiguration Building, where explosives will be extracted from weapons, while workers have placed about half of the equipment at the facility that will chemically neutralize the mustard agent (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, May 1).