Published: January 29, 2008 08:45 am      

Depot stockpile passes inspection

The Blue Grass Army Depot chemical weapon stockpile successfully passed its annual inspection last week that was administered by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) headquartered in The Netherlands.

The inspectors came from several different countries, including South Korea, and conducted an inspection of all chemical weapons stored and monitored by the Blue Grass Chemical Activity, which is a separate entity located inside the depot to ensure the proper storage, maintenance and disposal qualifications are being met.

The inspection is conducted to make sure that those working for Blue Grass Chemical Activity are meeting requirements set by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction.

The agreement is administered by the OPCW, which is an independent organization and often mistaken as being a department within the United Nations.

The convention is administered by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“The inspection was successfully completed in record time thanks to great preparation and planning by our employees, the professionalism of the international team, and their national escorts,” said Lt. Col. Tom Closs, commander of Blue Grass Chemical Activity. “I’m proud of our team and our role in demonstrating U.S. compliance to this important treaty. This is an important milestone for us every year and I’m very pleased it went so well.”

There is no specific grade given after the exercise, but is instead graded on a pass/fail scale.

“This is something that is required of us,” said Dick Sloan, public information officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity. “But, we do get a feeling that we’re doing our job right.

The OPCW is only in charge of making sure all the chemical weapons being stored at the depot are accounted for and in their proper locations.

“It (the inspection) caused us to spend extra time ensuring all safety precautions were completely in place and verified before beginning the enormous task of inventorying over 100,000 chemical munitions,” he said.

The Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection do regular inspections to verify that all weapon storage facilities are being monitored properly and consistently.

“They (the OPCW) do a 100-percent count on all the munitions and it has to be exactly correct,” Sloan said. “It can’t be off any at all. It’s a complete inspection with full disclosure. We have several organizations that provide oversight, and the more oversight we have, the better.”

The OPCW is an independent international organization. The group cooperates with the United Nations and the six official languages of the OPCW are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Under the terms of the CWC, the OPCW oversees many activities that include: Working to convince those countries in the world that have not yet done so to join the convention, checking and confirming the destruction of existing chemical weapons, monitoring certain activities in the chemical industry to reduce the risk of commercial chemicals being misused for weapons purposes, providing assistance and protection to member countries if they are attacked or threatened with attack by chemical weapons and promoting international cooperation for the peaceful uses of chemistry.

A U.S. escort team that includes employees from Blue Grass Chemical Activity and the Blue Grass Army Depot, accompany the international inspectors during their visit, Sloan said.

This month’s inspection was the 12th time that Blue Grass Chemical Activity has been inspected as part of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.