A confidential Army report cites wide-ranging safety and management deficiencies at a chemical weapons incinerator in Utah that is a model for similar plants planned at Aberdeen Proving Ground and six other U.S. sites.
The report by the Army inspector general's office, obtained by The Sun yesterday, echoes the allegations of Steven W. Jones, who says he was fired last September as the top safety officer at the Utah plant for speaking out about the problems.
Mr. Jones maintains that unsafe conditions and design flaws at the plant could lead to "catastrophic" accidents -- and that a defense contractor operating the facility and the Army are balking at correcting them.
But Army officials said yesterday that they already have begun ++ correcting many of the problems identified by the inspector general, adding that the Utah plant will not go into full operation until the corrections are completed and the inspector general revisits the Utah facility. Full operation is scheduled for next September for the Utah plant.
The 15-page report, which the Army has refused to release, notes serious deficiencies in safety, environmental protection, training and management at the nation's first full-scale chemical weapons disposal plant 50 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Among its major findings:
* Procedures being followed by contractors did not adhere to Army policies involving the handling of lethal chemicals, safety, security and environmental protection.
* Government oversight of the contractors was inadequate.
* Proper safety inspections were not conducted or documented.
* Proper drug screening was not completed for government workers at the plant, and some medical screening procedures to detect workplace poisoning were inadequate.
* Agreements were not in place to have outside medical personnel available to help in the event of an accident.
Congress has mandated destruction of the nation's 30,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile by 2005, and an international treaty also calls for the destruction of much of the world's chemical weapons. Aberdeen, where the Army wants to beging building an incinerator in 1998, stores 1,500 tons of mustard agent, a known carcinogen.
Residents on both shores of the Chesapeake Bay fear the Aberdeen plant would be unsafe and that it would be used for decades to dispose of many types of toxic wastes. Incineration opponents locally and nationwide are pressing the Army to pursue different disposal methods, such as chemical neutralization.
A nationwide citizens' group said yesterday that the confidential report raises questions about the Army's ability to operate one highly complicated incinerator to burn the weapons, let alone a total of eight such plants to destroy lethal nerve and blister weapons.
"Clearly, they have put a spin on this thing to put the best face on a bad situation," said Craig Williams, a spokesman for the Kentucky-based citizens' organization, Chemical Weapons Working Group.
Last week, the Army distributed a 166-page report -- prepared by the Army Safety Center -- which concluded that the Utah plant was "about where it should be, given the projected start date."
The Safety Center report was prepared in response to 119 allegations conveyed by Mr. Jones. Roughly half of Mr. Jones' allegations appeared to have been confirmed by the Army Safety Center. But Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Garrett, director of Army safety, said last week that some allegations were "technically true, but of little or no consequence to human health and safety."
The inspector general's report is dated Sept. 6. Mr. Jones, who is fighting his dismissal in a U.S. Labor Department proceeding, was fired Sept. 14 by his employer, EG&G; Defense Materials Inc. Company officials say Mr. Jones was fired for unspecified
"differences in management style and philosophy."
Army officials yesterday downplayed the significance of the inspector general's report, released by the citizens' group.
"Every one of the findings has either been addressed or is in the process of being addressed," said Col. James M. Coverstone, who directs the nationwide chemical "demilitarization" effort from Army agency at Aberdeen. The program is expected to cost $10 billion.