National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program

Board on Army Science and Technology

Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
1997

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418

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 report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

This is a report of work supported by Contract DAAG55-97-C-0026 between the U.S. Army and the National Academy of Sciences.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

COMMITTEE ON REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE ARMY CHEMICAL STOCKPILE DISPOSAL PROGRAM

RICHARD S. MAGEE (chair),

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

ELISABETH M. DRAKE (vice chair),

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

DENNIS C. BLEY,

Buttonwood Consulting, Inc., Oakton, Virginia

GENE H. DYER, consultant,

San Rafael, California

VINCENT E. FALTER,

U.S. Army (retired), Springfield, Virginia

J. ROBERT GIBSON,

DuPont Agricultural Products, Wilmington, Delaware

MICHAEL R. GREENBERG,

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway

CHARLES E. KOLB,

Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts

DAVID S. KOSSON,

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway

WALTER G. MAY,

University of Illinois, Urbana

ALVIN H. MUSHKATEL,

Arizona State University, Tempe

PETER J. NIEMIEC,

Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman & Machtinger LLP, Los Angeles, California

GEORGE W. PARSHALL,

DuPont Company (retired), Wilmington, Delaware

WILLIAM TUMAS,

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico

JYA-SYIN WU,

Hughes Information Technology Systems, Fullerton, California

Board on Army Science and Technology Liaison

ROBERT A. BEAUDET,

University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Staff

DONALD L. SIEBENALER, Study Director

HARRISON T. PANNELLA, Consultant

SHIREL R. SMITH, Senior Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

BOARD ON ARMY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

GENERAL GLENN K. OTIS (chair),

U.S. Army (retired), Newport News, Virginia

CHRISTOPHER C. GREEN (vice chair)

General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan

ROBERT A. BEAUDET,

University of Southern California, Los Angeles

GARY L. BARMAN,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

LAWRENCE J. DELANEY,

BDM Europe, Berlin, Germany

WILLIAM H. FORSTER,

Northrop Grumman Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland

ROBERT J. HEASTON,

Guidance and Control Information Analysis Center (retired), Naperville, Illinois

KATHRYN V. LOGAN,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

THOMAS MCNAUGHER,

RAND, Washington, D.C.

NORMAN F. PARKER,

Varian Associates (retired), Cardiff by the Sea, California

STEWART D. PERSONICK,

Bell Communications Research, Inc., Morristown, New Jersey

MILLARD "FRANK" ROSE,

Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama

HARVEY W. SCHADLER,

General Electric, Schenectady, New York

CLARENCE G. THORNTON,

Army Research Laboratories (retired), Colts Neck, New Jersey

JOHN D. VENABLES,

Martin Marietta Laboratories (retired), Towson, Maryland

ALLEN C. WARD,

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Staff

BRUCE A. BRAUN, Director

MICHAEL A. CLARKE, Senior Program Officer

ROBERT J. LOVE, Senior Program Officer

DONALD L. SIEBENALER, Study Director

MARGO L. FRANCESCO, Staff Associate

ALVERA GIRCYS, Financial Assistant

JACQUELINE CAMPBELL-JOHNSON, Senior Project Assistant

CECELIA RAY, Senior Project Assistant

SHIREL R. SMITH, Senior Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

Preface

In 1985, Congress directed the U.S. Army to begin destroying the U.S. chemical agent and munitions stock-pile. In 1987, the Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee) was formed. Since that time, the committee has monitored the progress of the Army's Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP). Throughout the development of the CSDP, the Stockpile Committee has provided oversight, review, and comment on relevant issues, including the engineering, verification (or systemization), and operations, at both a prototype facility at Johnston Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF), in Utah, the first full-scale chemical agent disposal facility in the continental United States.

Minimizing the risk to workers, the public, and the environment from the continued existence of the stock-pile and selecting safe and efficient means of disposal have been, and continue to be, the central themes of the Stockpile Committee's oversight role. Any attempt to minimize risk implies having confidence in the process used to assign values to various sources of risk (risk factors) and the methods used to analyze, compare, and use these factors in decision making. A comprehensive understanding of the full spectrum of risks is fundamental to sound risk management practices. With this in mind, the Stockpile Committee produced a letter report in 1993 calling on the Army to develop site-specific risk assessments as a way of refining the methodology and results of an earlier probabilistic risk assessment that supported the Army's Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement issued in 1988.

As the CSDP has progressed, the Stockpile Committee has advised the Army on the need for up-to-date, state-of-the-art, site-specific risk assessments. The recent focus of this advice has centered on the Deseret Chemical Depot (formerly Tooele Army Depot, South), where about 45 percent of the U.S. chemical agent and munitions stockpile is stored, and on the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, the associated disposal facility. The remainder of the stock-pile is distributed among seven continental U.S. storage sites and Johnston Atoll.

The consensus of the Stockpile Committee is that a clear picture of various risk assessment and risk management activities for Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (DCD/TOCDF) has emerged and warrants comment on both the quality of the technical risk analyses and on the Army's integration of these assessments into a comprehensive risk management plan for the site.

The risk management plan is the Army's framework for including considerations of risk in both site-specific and programmatic decisions. The committee's report is intended to facilitate understanding and to encourage public dialogue concerning the DCD/TOCDF and the Army's broader risk management program. In this report, the Stockpile Committee analyzes the chosen risk quantification methodologies and the plan by which the resultant risks are to be managed at the depot and in the disposal facility. Suggestions for improving the risk assessment/risk management process that may be applicable to other chemical storage sites and to the overall disposal program are also made.

The committee greatly appreciates the support and assistance of National Research Council staff members Donald L. Siebenaler, Shirel R. Smith, and Carol R. Arenberg, as well as NRC consultant Harrison T. Pannella, in the production of this report.

RICHARD S. MAGEE, CHAIR

ELISABETH M. DRAKE, VICE CHAIR

COMMITTEE ON REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE ARMY CHEMICAL STOCKPILE DISPOSAL PROGRAM

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×
Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes

Figures

ES-1

Schematic illustration of TOCDF risk elements,

2

ES-2

Contributors to the average public fatality risk from continued storage at DCD,

3

ES-3

Contributors to the average public fatality risk from processing at DCD and TOCDF,

3

ES-4

Comparison of public risks during processing at DCD and TOCDF,

4

ES-5

Contributors to the average risk of fatality to disposal-related workers at DCD and TOCDF,

4

1-1

Location and size (percentage of remaining stockpile) of eight continental U.S. storage sites,

9

2-1

Schematic illustration of risk elements at the TOCDF,

15

2-2

Overview of QRA process,

19

2-3

Rocket handling system fault trees for agent spilled during shear operation,

20

2-4

Contributors to the average public fatality risk from continued storage at DCD,

25

2-5

Public acute fatality risk of DCD stockpile storage over 7.1 years of disposal processing,

26

2-6

Radial polar grid of surrounding population,

27

2-7

Mean public acute fatality complementary cumulative distribution function for munition storage during the 7.1 years of disposal processing, by distance from DCD,

28

2-8

Comparison of public risks during processing at DCD and TOCDF,

29

2-9

Comparison of public risks during processing at DCD and TOCDF (logarithmic scale),

30

2-10

Contributors to the average public fatality risk from processing at DCD and TOCDF,

30

2-11

Contributors to the average risk of fatality to disposal-related workers at DCD and TOCDF,

31

2-12

Summary of mean public risk from storage and processing at DCD and TOCDF,

31

2-13

Public societal acute fatalities for all campaigns (TOCDF disposal processing),

32

2-14

Mean public acute fatality risk by distance from TOCDF during disposal processing,

33

2-15

Acute fatalities for other on-site workers at TOCDF from accidents during disposal processing,

34

3-1

PMCD's organizational elements directly related to risk management,

42

3-2

The change process,

43

A-1

Form of the results: scenario probability,

64

A-2

Aleatory and epistemic uncertainty,

64

A-3

Risk profiles with the same expected risk,

67

A-4

Risk curve,

68

A-5

Form of the results: risk profiles,

69

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

Tables

2-1

Summary of the Human Health Risk—Overall Risk of Cancer for Combined TOCDF and CAMDS Disposal Operations,

35

2-2

Risks for an Individual Living 2 to 5 Kilometers from the TOCDF,

37

2-3

Expected Number of Fatalities (Societal Risk),

37

3-1

Issues and Factors in Assessing the Value of Change Options,

44

3-2

Activities by Risk Management Function,

45

3-3

PMCD Risk Management through Its Organizations and Functions,

45

A-1

Scenario List with Cumulative Probability,

68

Box

2-1

Individual Risk at DCD and the TOCDF in Perspective,

36

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×

Acronyms


APET

accident progression event tree


CAC

Citizens Advisory Commission

CAMDS

Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System

CSDP

Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program

CSEPP

Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program

CWC

Chemical Weapons Convention


DCD

Deseret Chemical Depot

DSHW

Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste (Utah)


EG&G

Edgerton, Germerhausen and Grier, Incorporated

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency


FPEIS

Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement


GA

nerve agent (Tabun)

GB

nerve agent (Sarin)


H, HD, HT

blister or mustard agents

HRA

health risk assessment


JACADS

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System


LPG

liquid propane gas


MPF

metal parts furnace


NRC

National Research Council


OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OVT

operational verification testing


PAS

pollution abatement system

PFS

PAS filter system

PMCD

Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization

POD

process operational diagram


QRA

quantitative risk assessment


RCRA

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act


SAIC

Science Applications International Corporation


TOCDF

Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility


VX

nerve agent

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
×
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5872.
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