Johnston Atoll spill
results in EPA fineAn unknown quantity of VX
nerve agent was released in 2002
SAN FRANCISCO >> The U.S. Army and a contractor were fined nearly $52,000 for releasing a deadly chemical at the weapons disposal facility on Johnston Atoll, federal environmental officials announced last week.
An unknown quantity of VX nerve agent was released in August 2002 at Johnston Atoll when a tray holding remnants of a VX shell was improperly loaded into an incinerator, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's office in San Francisco.
Exposure to VX can cause paralysis and death within minutes, but there were no known exposures or reports of harm to any person or any wildlife, according to the EPA's Dean Higuchi.
The atoll, 825 miles southwest of Honolulu, is a national bird sanctuary. It also held more than 6 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons -- 412,000 different types of explosives, mustard and nerve agents. Congress ordered the weapons destroyed in 1986.
Disposal began in 1990 at a Johnston Atoll facility jointly operated by the Army and its contractor, Washington Group International Inc. The Boise, Idaho, company, which bills itself as the world's leader in dismantling military stockpiles of chemical weapons, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The EPA found that the Army and Washington Group failed to maintain and operate the facility to minimize the possibility of a release, and failed to follow its own emergency plan. The settlement resolves the EPA's complaint. Neither the Army nor Washington Group admitted wrongdoing.
The EPA had issued previous fines over inadvertent releases at Johnston Atoll. The Army agreed to pay more than $273,000 to settle violations stemming from the discovery in 2000 of a trace amount of VX nerve agent in a waste bin on Johnston Atoll. In 1994, the EPA fined the Army $122,000 over the release of sarin gas.
More than 4 million pounds of chemical weapons and agents have been destroyed on Johnston Atoll since 1990. The Army has dismantled the facility and is in the process of restoring the site to its natural role as a wildlife refuge.