Army seeks
solution solution

Decontamination solution
from Johnston Island has been refused
by residents of an Illinois town

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

After objections were raised in an Illinois community, the Army is looking for another mainland disposal plant to handle decontamination solution from Johnston Island.

Concerns raised by the residents of Sauget, Ill., where the Army had planned to ship the waste, forced the Army to change its plans. Sauget is where UXB International, which has the contract to destroy the decontamination solution, operates a hazardous-waste treatment plant.

The decontamination solution is now housed in metal tanks that are corroding.

Greg Mahall, Army spokesman, said UXB has a similar plant in Port Arthur, near the Texas-Louisiana border, that could do the work.

"It's too early to say where we are headed," Mahall added. "We are still investigating our options. ... We may have to find another way or company."

The decontamination solution is more than a quarter of a century old, and was used by the Army to clean containers that had been filled with nerve and blister agents on Johnston Atoll, located 900 miles southwest of Honolulu.

The containers were drained of hazardous material and filled with solution. The containers that held blister agents were filled with household bleach and water, while a bleach or solution of baking soda and water was used to clean the containers that held nerve agents.

The Army said it would be cheaper to transport the solution to the mainland than to destroy it on Johnston.

But the Army said that concerns raised by the Illinois community forced them to change their plans.

The Army maintains that the decontamination solution is safe -- a mixture of 98 percent water, 1 percent salt and 1 percent organic materials.

James Bacon, program manager for the Army's chemical demilitarization program in Maryland, said: "Although the solution was cleaner than the safe drinking-water standards set by the Army surgeon general, the public's perception and concerns outweighed our need to destroy it at Sauget.

"It's an unfortunate situation because the concern was over something that was, in essence, less potent than ordinary household bleach."

The Army will continue seeking an Environmental Protection Agency permit to expand the storage area on Johnston, where the transfer to holding tanks would take place.

The Army plans to destroy the 244 deteriorating storage tanks on Johnston once the decontamination solution is taken off the atoll.

In March the Army's Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System reported destroying more than 72 percent of the chemical weapons stored there.

The Army has until the year 2000 to complete its Johnston operations, which started in 1990.