Mustard Agent Leaking at Richmond, KY Depot

(courtesy of Melissa Purdue)

I wonder how many depots across the US are having these kinds of problems...
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Mustard agent leaking at depot
Lexington Herald-Leader

Leaking mustard agent has been found in a second Blue Grass Army Depot storage building near Richmond, the Army announced yesterday.

The building, known as an igloo, is being filtered to prevent the chemical agent from escaping into the air. The army said there was no danger to the community.

The first mustard leak was detected July 19, and workers continue to isolate munitions in that storage building to determine which projectile is leaking. The duration of the process has been compounded by this summer's sweltering heat, depot spokesman Richard Sloan said.

Workers conducting tests who enter the igloos, which contain more than 5,000 projectiles each, must wear rubber garments.

"In today's heat, you can only stay in those garments for about 10 minutes," Sloan said. Once found, the leaking projectile will be packed into a leakproof container.

Mustard agent is the least lethal of the chemical weapons at the depot. The nerve agents VX and GB also are stored there.

The number of leaks is unusual at the depot, which averages about two a year. In May and June, five M55 rockets were found to be leaking the nerve agent GB, better known as sarin. Those were isolated and moved to a special storage building for leaking containers.

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