Review of Closure Plans for the Baseline Incineration Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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www.nap.edu
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No. W911NF-09-C-0081 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Army. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
Front cover—Upper left: Demolition of filter housing at Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Maryland). Lower, from left: Scabbling (removal of a layer of concrete) at Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System; tented titanium reactor at Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Maryland); and pressure washing at Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Indiana). Images superimposed on a diagram of potentially contaminated areas, to be enclosed by tents, processing bay, Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Indiana).
Back cover—Mass demolition of ton container cleanout building, Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Maryland).
Photographs courtesy of U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.
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COMMITTEE TO REVIEW AND ASSESS CLOSURE PLANS FOR THE TOOELE CHEMICAL AGENT DISPOSAL FACILITY AND THE CHEMICAL AGENT AND MUNITIONS DISPOSAL SYSTEM
PETER B. LEDERMAN, Chair,
Hazardous Substance Management Research Center (retired), New Providence, New Jersey
GARY S. GROENEWOLD,
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
DEBORAH L. GRUBBE,
Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
JOHN R. HOWELL (NAE),
University of Texas, Austin
TODD A. KIMMELL,
Argonne National Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
KALATHIL E. PHILIPOSE,
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (retired), Ontario, Canada
LOUIS T. PHILLIPS,
Resource: PM, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
DANNY D. REIBLE (NAE),
University of Texas, Austin
W. LEIGH SHORT,
Woodward Clyde & Associates (retired), Williamstown, Massachusetts
LEONARD M. SIEGEL,
Center for Public Environmental Oversight, Mountain View, California
DAVID A. SKIVEN,
Worldwide Facilities, General Motors Corporation (retired), Brighton, Michigan
SHERYL A. TELFORD,
DuPont Corporate Remediation Group Director, Wilmington, Delaware
LAWRENCE J. WASHINGTON,
The Dow Chemical Company (retired), Midland, Michigan
Staff
NANCY T. SCHULTE, Study Director
HARRISON PANNELLA, Senior Program Officer
NIA D. JOHNSON, Senior Research Associate
ALICE V. WILLIAMS, Senior Program Assistant
BOARD ON ARMY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALAN H. EPSTEIN, Chair,
Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, Connecticut
DENNIS J. REIMER, Vice Chair, (USA retired),
Arlington, Virginia
DUANE ADAMS,
Carnegie Mellon University (retired), Arlington, Virginia
ILESANMI ADESIDA,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
RAJ AGGARWAL,
University of Iowa, Coralville
EDWARD C. BRADY,
Strategic Perspectives, Inc., McLean, Virginia
L. REGINALD BROTHERS,
BAE Systems, Arlington, Virginia
JAMES CARAFANO,
The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.
W. PETER CHERRY,
Science Applications International Corporation, Ann Arbor, Michigan
RONALD P. FUCHS,
The Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington
W. HARVEY GRAY,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CARL GUERRERI,
Electronic Warfare Associates, Inc., Herndon, Virginia
JOHN H. HAMMOND,
Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired), Fairfax, Virginia
M. FREDERICK HAWTHORNE,
University of Missouri–Columbia
RANDALL W. HILL,
University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Marina del Rey, California
MARY JANE IRWIN,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
ELLIOTT D. KIEFF,
Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
LARRY LEHOWICZ,
Quantum Research International, Arlington, Virginia
DAVID M. MADDOX,
Arlington, Virginia
WILLIAM L. MELVIN,
Georgia Tech Research Institute, Smyrna, Georgia
ROBIN MURPHY,
Texas A&M University, College Station
RICHARD R. PAUL,
Bellevue, Washington
JONATHAN M. SMITH,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
MARK J.T. SMITH,
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
MICHAEL A. STROSCIO,
University of Illinois, Chicago
JUDITH L. SWAIN,
University of California San Diego, La Jolla
JOSEPH YAKOVAC,
Hampton, Virginia
Staff
BRUCE A. BRAUN, Director
CHRIS JONES, Financial Associate
DEANNA SPARGER, Program Administrative Coordinator
Preface
For over half a century the United States has maintained a stockpile of chemical weapons and bulk agent at Army depots distributed around the country. This stockpile contained approximately 30,000 tons of chemical nerve agents GB and VX, and several forms of mustard agent. These agents were contained in about 3 million munitions of various types as well as in bulk storage containers.
The U.S. Army has been engaged in destroying this stockpile since 1986. On July 1, 2010, the U.S. Army’s Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) announced that 75 percent of the nation’s stockpile had been destroyed. This work has taken place at nine chemical agent destruction facilities. Five of these used incineration technology. The first of these, the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, completed its mission in 2000. It was subsequently closed and dismantled. The other four incineration-based chemical agent destruction facilities and a related testing facility will be finishing their missions in the next two years, and preparations are being made for the start of closure operations. An examination of the means for properly planning for the safe and efficient closure of these facilities is the subject of this study, and it is the charge given to the committee by the director of the CMA. The statement of task is shown in Chapter 1 on pages 7 and 8.
The first of the remaining four facilities to proceed with agent disposal, the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Utah), began operations in 1996, followed by chemical agent disposal facilities in Anniston, Alabama, in 2003; Umatilla, Oregon, in 2004; and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 2005. This study evaluates the closure planning and makes recommendations regarding closure activities.
As the chair of the committee, I wish to express my appreciation to my fellow committee members for their contributions to the preparation of this report, which included interviewing CMA and contractor staff and stakeholders, visiting sites, and collecting and analyzing scores of planning documents in a short time. Every member of the committee made significant contributions to the writing of the report.
The committee in turn is grateful to the many CMA staff members and the prime contractor, the URS Corporation, for making themselves readily available, for their extensive efforts to ensure that data were available in a clear format, and for ensuring that all of the committee’s questions were answered. All this was done in spite of their many other duties. The committee also greatly appreciates the assistance of the NRC staff who assisted in the fact-finding activities, carried on significant research in support of the report, and were instrumental in the production of the report.
The Board on Army Science and Technology (BAST) members listed on page vi were not asked to endorse the committee’s conclusions or recommendations, nor did they review the final draft of this report before its release, although board members with appropriate expertise may be nominated to serve as formal members of the study committees or as report reviewers.
Peter B. Lederman, Ph.D., Chair
Committee to Review and Assess Closure Plans for the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility and the Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Joan B. Berkowitz, Farkas Berkowitz & Company,
Jan Beyea, Consulting in the Public Interest,
Elisabeth M. Drake, NAE, MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment,
Harold K. Forsen, NAE, Bechtel Corporation (retired),
Charles E. Kolb, Aerodyne Research, Inc.,
George W. Parshall, NAS, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (retired),
William J. Rogers, Tennessee Valley Authority,
William J. Walsh, Pepper Hamilton, LLP, and
Charles F. Zukoski, NAE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Hyla Napadensky. Appointed by the NRC, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Tables, Figures, and Box
TABLES
2-1 |
Status of Closure Planning Documentation for Each Baseline Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, |
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2-2 |
Closure Planning Documents Completed by June 16, 2010, for Each Baseline Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, |
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3-1 |
Program-Level Parameters and Metrics, |
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3-2 |
Project-Level Parameters and Metrics for the Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities, |
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3-3 |
Chemical Demilitarization Site Recordable Injury Rates as of March 31, 2010, |
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6-1 |
Airborne Exposure Limits for GB, VX, and H, and Ratios of Worker Protection Limit and General Population Limit to Vapor Screening Level, |
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B-1 |
Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report, |
FIGURES
1-1 |
Location and original size (percentage of original chemical agent stockpile) of eight continental U.S. storage sites, |
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2-1 |
Site-specific closure planning, |
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4-1 |
Steps of the lessons learned process, |
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4-2 |
Flow sequence for lessons learned, |
BOX
4-1 |
Description of the CMA eRoom, |
Acronyms and Abbreviations
ABCDF Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Maryland)
ACAMS automatic continuous air monitoring system
ANCA Anniston Chemical Activity (Alabama)
ANCDF Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Alabama)
BAST Board on Army Science and Technology
BRAC Base Realignment and Closure
CAC Citizens Advisory Commission
CAMDS Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System (Utah)
CDF chemical agent disposal facility
CEMS continuous emissions monitoring system
CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
CMA Chemical Materials Agency (U.S. Army)
CTUIR Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
CWC Chemical Weapons Convention
DAAMS depot area air monitoring system
DCD Deseret Chemical Depot
DWP decommissioning work package
EPA Environment Protection Agency
GB nerve agent (sarin)
GPL general population limit
H mustard agent
HD distilled mustard agent
HT distilled mustard mixed with bis-(2-(2-chloroethylthio)ethyl) ether
IDLH immediately dangerous to life and health
JACADS Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System
L lewisite
LDR land disposal restriction
LIC liquid incinerator
MINICAMS Miniature Chemical Agent Monitoring System
NECD Newport Chemical Depot (Indiana)
NECDF Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility
NRC National Research Council
ODEQ Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OST occluded space team
PAH polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
PBCA Pine Bluff Chemical Activity (Arkansas)
PBCDF Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Arkansas)
PCB polychlorinated biphenyl
PCC permit compliance concentration
PMCD Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization
PMCMA Program Manager, Chemical Materials Agency
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
STEL short-term exposure limit
STL short-term limit
TOCDF Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Utah)
TSDF treatment, storage, and disposal facility
UCD Umatilla Chemical Depot
UDAQ Utah Division of Air Quality
UDSHW Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste
UMADRA Umatilla Army Depot Re-Use Authority
UMCD Umatilla Chemical Depot
UMCDF Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (Oregon)
UMT unventilated monitoring testing
USACHPPM U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine
VSL vapor screening level
VX nerve agent
WCL waste control limit
WPL worker population limit