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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2010 | Updated 0 hours, 8 minutes ago
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4/8/2005  | Email this article • Print this article • Comment on this article | Mustard agent may contain mercury
By ANDREW BINION
of the East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The Army is monitoring the chemical weapons incineration process at the Toole Chemical Depot in Utah before deciding what to do about the possibility that mustard agents at the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot contain mercury.
The revelation that mustard agents at the Toole facility have amounts of mercury, a toxic pollutant, came from a congressional hearing earlier this week, said Umatilla Chemical Depot Spokeswoman Mary Binder.
The depot has yet to begin destroying its more than 2,600 ton containers of mustard agent, which is in storage and has not been loaded into rockets or other weapons, Binder said.
When the furnace and filters were built, tests were run to ensure that the amount of nickel, lead and other toxic chemicals released into the environment would not exceed air quality limits.
Management at the Tooele facility is testing whether the chemical weapons that contain mercury can be destroyed without violating limits on mercury pollution, Binder said, a move Umatilla may take in the future.
Currently, representatives of the different agencies and contractors involved in the incineration at Umatilla are discussing the issue, Binder said.
“Although its several years down road, we’ve started that process,” she said.
The Umatilla Chemical Depot will begin destroying its cache of mustard in about 2008, after the sarin agent and nerve gasses are destroyed, Binder said.
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