With a 2012 deadline looming for destruction of all chemical weapons stored at Deseret Chemical Depot, depot officials are proposing building a new small-scale liquid incinerator to speed up destruction of GA nerve agent and Lewisite blister agent.
However, approval of that plan will depend upon the findings of an environmental assessment, which is currently underway and scheduled to be concluded by December.
GA and Lewisite, which make up a small portion of DCD’s original stockpile of chemical weapons, were originally in line to be destroyed at the Chemical Agent Munition Disposal System facility — a research and development facility separate from incineration operations going on at the Tooele Chemical Disposal Facility. Both agents were originally scheduled to be destroyed during a lull in regular operations during the mid ’90s — GA via incineration and Lewisite via neutralization.
However, because of scheduling issues and, later, technical issues, that plan was abandoned and the agents were put back into storage until another alternative could be found. Officials are now re-addressing the destruction of these agents with the current proposal.
Ted Reyba, TOCDF site project manager, said there are multiple reasons why DCD officials are proposing to build a new incinerator rather than using the larger main incinerator to destroy GA and Lewisite. Those include time constraints and the unique makeup of the agents.
“The primary reason for doing it separate from our mustard destruction operation is to help the United States in meeting its treaty obligations,” Reyba said. “Mustard is scheduled to finish close to the treaty date, so doing something parallel is much more desirable.”
DCD already has two small liquid incinerators, but Reyba said neither was designed to handle the arsenic that is associated with Lewisite.
“What would be unique about this setup is the pollution abatement system will be designed slightly differently from what we have in the plant because of the known makeup of the Lewisite agent,” Reyba said. “There will be some components that our plant isn’t used to processing, so there will be some enhancements made to the system.”
Should the environment assessment come back with a favorable review, meaning the proposed option poses no significant impacts to the environment, the plan will be finalized and workers will move forward. If, however, the proposal reports significant impacts to the environment, an environmental impact statement — a more rigorous review — will be completed to help better identify those impacts.
“An environmental impact statement takes a more detailed and harder look on what you’re proposing to do and the options,” Reyba said.
In the end, the environment impact statement could result in continued storage of the agents until yet another alternative surfaces.
The public is encouraged to comment about the current environmental assessment process and what concerns it should address. Comments may be mailed or hand-delivered to the Tooele Chemical Stockpile Outreach Office at 54 S. Main Street in Tooele by Sept. 8.
“This is where the public has the opportunity to influence what the environmental assessment would say,” Reyba said. “This is not a step required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this is an enhancement we have added.”
Reyba said a draft of the environmental assessment is expected to be completed by late winter. At that point, a 30-day public comment period will open. Sixty days following the release of the draft, officials expect a final copy to be released, which will confirm whether DCD can move forward with the proposed action or not.
Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com
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