Whoops. EPA Fines Army Over Nerve Gas Release Wed May 26, 8:30 PM ET Add U.S. Government - AP to My Yahoo! SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Army and a contractor were fined nearly $52,000 for releasing a deadly chemical weapon on a wildlife sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean, federal environmental officials announced Wednesday. An unknown quantity of VX nerve agent was released in August 2002 at a chemical weapons disposal facility on Johnston Atoll, the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites)'s office in San Francisco said. The release occurred when a tray holding remnants of a VX shell was improperly loaded into an incinerator. Exposure to the agent can cause paralysis and death within minutes, but there were no known exposures or reports of harm to any person or any wildlife, said Dean Higuchi of the EPA. The atoll, located 825 miles southwest of Honolulu, is a national a 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 facility jointly operated by the Army and its contractor, Washington Group International of Boise, Idaho. Neither the Army nor Washington Group admitted wrongdoing as part of the fine. The Army had agreed to pay nearly $400,000 for previous violations in 1994 and 2000 involving VX and 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. http://www.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTB1M2EzYWFoBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDaWUtYmV0YQ--/s/192286
If you hadn't nailed it to it's perch it would be pushing up the daisies by now. This is an ex-parrot. LOL
Why is this important? It sounds like they had a little -- and harmless -- accident. I can see why it made the paper, but I'm not sure why it's a thread.
I just thought it was amusing that we get into heated, multipage arguments full of charges and countercharges about a single rusted artillery shell with decaying Sarin, etc. while the US Army is dumping tons of VX gas out the window.
Curiously, this one actually was confirmed. Sarin. And mustard a couple of weeks before. Why weren't these finds more publicized? Gee, could it bee that the media actually wants us to lose??? Naaahhh.... Spin this as "one round does not a stockpile make". The obvious, logical, and probably true rebuttal is that "never once was a single sarin round made" - "where there's smoke, there's fire", etc. Point out that this particular round was a binary type that could only activate if fired - quite a sophisticated design that mixes gasses in flightas a trigger mechanism, and one that is only production-worthy if the producer has access to heavy artillery - and you have some serious questions to ask. Logic does not favor a Democrat's typical answer to them, either. Let this play out. See where it leads - My prediction, it will lead somewhere. Somewhere physical, that is, that holds your precious "stockpiles", and from there to certain people whop will be quite embarrassed. There is no quaint explanation as to why sarin and mustard were both found in Iraq. Nothing that really jibes witrh the whole "We were lied to" atrgument... Oh, s*it. I forgot I was dealing with the conspiracy squad. Amend that to 'There is nothing unexplainable here if you consider that the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DoD are the fount of a global evil movement that tolerant forces - led by John Kerry - are combatting as we speak. Let's win the war without a fight, People.
It really was amazing. After all these months of silence he had to be wasted for that to be his comeback. Most amazing of all is the way he's still got centrifuge in his sig. Here's another newsflash: Santa Claus IS coming to town. If you don't believe it, you're just a hater. As for Faos (who's actually, believe it or not, a truly decent GARM poster), is one photo of Gore going to be your answer for everything here on out? Because I'd really recommend that. It's a natural fact that a silly Gore photo is the most compelling argument you've made here yet. So far you've posted it two or three times and it's the only thing you've posted in this particular forum that's made any sense at all. Reminds me of those days when Rush and the like didn't have anything good on Clinton so they focused on whether or not Chelsea was ugly. Great, great, heady stuff. Keep up the good work. Newspapers are for sissies.
Actually, it seems to me that we were trying to get rid of it the best possible way, and there was an accident. That's just a little different.
A contractor and the Army release a deadly chemical weapon in a wildlife sanctuary and are fined $52K???? I'm continually amazed at how relatively small these fines are. You would think we would take these things more seriously. But I guess it was an accident and they've promised to never, never, never, never, never, never do it again (until the next time).
Serious question: What would have been the reaction, official, in the media, and yours personally, were it known that the person who accidentally released the gas was of Arabic origins?
Depends where the gas was released . Seriously -- there may well be an uproar if they find the contractor was of Arab origins, but more because they'd be in contact with the chemicals then about this particular event. We know what happened to these chemicals so there's not security concerns...now about them fishies....
If an Arabic worker even intentionally released the VX gas, I'd think he was an idiot. He's in a wildlife sanctuary in some remote island in the middle of a vast ocean. He could hurt himself, the only other 12 or so people he ever sees and some birds. Big whoop. The place is in the middle of nowhere.
