Published: July 03, 2007 08:00 am      

Depot official: Letter’s claims are unfounded

Anonymous allegations about the inventory process for chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot could be something to ignore, or something to investigate, according to two local sources.

An anonymous letter addressed to several entities, including Sens. Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell, was recently distributed and claims that the depot’s Blue Grass Chemical Activity department, in charge of overseeing the chemical weapons, has no correct inventory records of the weapons stored in the depot’s 45 “igloos.”

“At this time, no one can say with any certainty what is in storage at Blue Grass Army Depot Chemical Activity, how much is there, or where it is located,” the letter states.

Dick Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity, said the allegations are completely false, but Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, said that it may be something that needs further investigation.

“I would note that the seriousness of this particular accusation is above and beyond anything previously brought forward and deserves the highest level of attention and investigation by the Pentagon,” Williams said.

The previous allegations Williams refers to stem from another anonymous letter with the exact same list of addressees distributed in late May.

It accused Chemical Activity personnel of knowingly transporting “material exposed to unknown quantities of nerve, gas and blister agent,” the letter stated.

The most current accusations about the Chemical Activity’s inventory process are the obvious outcry of a “disgruntled employee,” Sloan said.

“There are no problems with the inventory,” he said. “And, we don’t see where anyone would gain from this malicious stuff. If anything, we (the Blue Grass Chemical Activity) lose because when stuff like that gets in the media, it tends to erode the public’s trust in what we do out there and we have to have that trust from the citizens.”

The letter claims that a specific Chemical Activity worker’s actions have “possibly involved discarding/destroying documents, entering false data, falsifying dates of entries ... and entering the inventory computer system by using another employee’s password without that person’s knowledge or consent. It would appear that some of this was done knowingly cover up her previous actions, circumvent the system’s safeguards and prevent detection.”

The author of the letter is referring to Chemical Activity’s internal inventory, Sloan said.

The storage igloos are subject to two inventories each year, one being done by Chemical Activity personnel and the other is done by an outside source from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“This entire breakdown of the inventory system results from the unethical, if not illegal, actions of the individual responsible for tracking/entering the movement or location of toxic agents,” the letter states. “Even more disturbing is the fact that there seems to be a desire to quietly smooth over the situation without the public or elected officials being made aware of it.”

The internal inventory of the igloos is “like going into your closet,” Sloan said. “You know what’s in there, but you have to go count it anyway.”

The OPCW annual inventory is a very meticulous, thorough process. The Blue Grass Chemical Activity received a 100 percent accountability on its most recent inventory, Sloan said.

The igloos are monitored on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The ones that are checked every day have a history of containing a leaking weapon that has been “overpacked” for safety, he said.

“The Kentucky Environmental Department has fantastic oversight over us,” Sloan said. “They’re (at the Chemical Activity site) all the time and we’re going to do everything we can to cooperate with them. We know, within an inch or two, where everything is. I’m sorry that we have someone who is upset and I wish they’d find another way to resolve whatever issue they have.”

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