HERMISTON – Calling it a high risk operation, Lt. Col. David Holliday, commander at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, will send workers during the next few weeks into a storage structure to repair containers that might potentially leak liquid chemical agent.

Four ton containers in Igloo 1881 are deteriorating and threatening to spill liquid GB, also known as sarin nerve agent, Holliday told the Citizens Advisory Commission Thursday.

“The contents have started to deteriorate the hull and plugs and bulkheads of the containers,” Holliday said. “The integrity of the cylinders is now in question.”

If liquid agent is spilled inside the igloo, Holliday saidhe is worried that the agent’s vapors would overwhelm the filters of the igloo, which are meant to protect the outside environment.

Workers at the Depot, in full protective gear, have already tightened the plugs, and one of the containers was placed above a special plastic spill kit with decontamination fluids, Holliday said.

In the meantime, new containers are being constructed in Tooele, Utah, and will be shipped to the Depot by the end of the month, Holliday said.

Workers will continue to enter the igloo until then, to tighten the plugs and to take other safety precautions, Holliday said.

The structure storing the ton containers also stores a variety of sarin-filled weapons that have leaked small amounts of vapors over the years.

None of the weapons have ever leaked liquid agent, Holliday said.

The igloo is monitored daily, he said.

Also at the Citizens Advisory Commission meeting, Senior Policy Adviser to the Governor Craig Campbell said no one should worry about chemical weapons being moved into or out of Oregon.

The U.S. Department of Defense is studying the option of moving some chemical weapons from other stockpile sites across the country to sites with operating disposal facilities, such as the incinerator at the Depot.

Such a move could potentially save money and time and help meet an international treaty deadline for destruction of the nation’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

Campbell said Oregon’s distance from the other stockpile sites makes it unlikely to be considered for such a move, even if the Department of Defense OKs the idea of relocating stockpiles.

“The long and short of it is that Oregon is not a good candidate,” Campbell said. “From everything I’m hearing, it isn’t being considered.”

Both federal and state law prevents chemical weapons from being moved across state lines.