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 is a report of work supported by Contract DAAD19-01-C-0001 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 views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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National Research Council
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COMMITTEE ON REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE ARMY CHEMICAL STOCKPILE DISPOSAL PROGRAM
PETER B. LEDERMAN, Chair,
New Jersey Institute of Technology (retired), Newark
CHARLES I. McGINNIS, Vice Chair, Consultant,
Charlottesville, Virginia
DAVID H. ARCHER,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PIERO M. ARMENANTE,
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark (until 07/01/01)
JERRY L.R. CHANDLER,
George Mason University, McLean, Virginia
JOHN J. COSTOLNICK,
Exxon Chemical Company (retired), Houston, Texas
FRANK P. CRIMI,
Lockheed Martin (retired), Saratoga, California (until 11/30/01)
ELISABETH M. DRAKE,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (as of 10/01/01)
MICHAEL R. GREENBERG,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick (until 08/31/01)
DEBORAH L. GRUBBE,
DuPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware
DAVID A. HOECKE,
Enercon Systems, Inc., Elyria, Ohio
DAVID H. JOHNSON,
ABS Consulting, Irvine, California
GARY L. LAGE,
ToxiLogics, Inc., Titusville, New Jersey
JOHN L. MARGRAVE,
Rice University, Houston, Texas (as of 10/01/01)
JAMES F. MATHIS,
Exxon Corporation (retired), Houston, Texas
FREDERICK G. POHLAND,
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ROBERT B. PUYEAR, Consultant,
Chesterfield, Missouri
CHARLES F. REINHARDT,
DuPont Company (retired), Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
KENNETH F. REINSCHMIDT, Consultant,
Littleton, Massachusetts (until 01/31/02)
W. LEIGH SHORT,
URS Greiner Woodward-Clyde (retired), Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
JEFFREY I. STEINFELD,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
CHADWICK A. TOLMAN,
National Research Council, Washington, D.C. (until 07/31/01)
RAE ZIMMERMAN,
New York University (as of 10/01/01)
Board on Army Science and Technology Liaison
RICHARD A. CONWAY,
Union Carbide Corporation (retired), Charleston, West Virginia
Staff
DONALD L. SIEBENALER, Study Director
HARRISON T. PANNELLA, Program Officer
DANIEL E.J. TALMAGE, JR., Research Associate
CARTER W. FORD, Senior Project Assistant
BOARD ON ARMY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
JOHN E. MILLER, Chair,
Oracle Corporation, Reston, Virginia
GEORGE T. SINGLEY III, Vice Chair,
Hicks and Associates, Inc., McLean, Virginia
ROBERT L. CATTOI,
Rockwell International (retired), Dallas, Texas
RICHARD A. CONWAY,
Union Carbide Corporation (retired), Charleston, West Virginia
GILBERT F. DECKER,
Walt Disney Imagineering (retired), Glendale, California
ROBERT R. EVERETT,
MITRE Corporation (retired), New Seabury, Massachusetts
PATRICK F. FLYNN,
Cummins Engine Company, Inc. (retired), Columbus, Indiana
HENRY J. HATCH,
(Army Chief of Engineers, retired) Oakton, Virginia
EDWARD J. HAUG,
University of Iowa, Iowa City
GERALD J. IAFRATE,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
MIRIAM E. JOHN,
California Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore
DONALD R. KEITH,
Cypress International (retired), Alexandria, Virginia
CLARENCE W. KITCHENS,
IIT Research Institute, Alexandria, Virginia
SHIRLEY A. LIEBMAN,
CECON Group (retired), Holtwood, Pennsylvania
KATHRYN V. LOGAN,
Georgia Institute of Technology (professor emerita), Roswell
STEPHEN C. LUBARD,
S-L Technology, Woodland Hills, California
JOHN W. LYONS,
U.S. Army Research Laboratory (retired), Ellicott City, Maryland
JOHN H. MOXLEY,
Korn/Ferry International, Los Angeles, California
STEWART D. PERSONICK,
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
MILLARD F. ROSE,
Radiance Technologies, Huntsville, Alabama
JOSEPH J. VERVIER,
ENSCO, Inc., Melbourne, Florida
Staff
BRUCE A. BRAUN, Director
MICHAEL A. CLARKE, Associate Director
WILLIAM E. CAMPBELL, Administrative Coordinator
CHRIS JONES, Financial Associate
DANIEL E.J. TALMAGE, JR., Research Associate
GWEN ROBY, Administrative Assistant
DEANNA P. SPARGER, Senior Project Assistant
Preface
The Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS), the first fully integrated U.S. chemical agent disposal facility, was constructed in the late 1980s on Johnston Island, located in the Pacific Ocean some 800 miles southwest of Hawaii. Agent operations began during the summer of 1990. With the disposal of the last land mine on the island in November 2000, this landmark incineration facility concluded more than 10 years of almost uninterrupted, extremely hazardous agent and munitions disposal operations.
The relatively large, two-story JACADS complex included myriad electrical, mechanical, automated, and robotic equipment (including many monitoring devices) used to destroy or dispose of multiple types of agents and all their varied kinds of containers and weapons systems. Constant attention had to be paid to safety while meeting production goals.
Now that the fundamental job of JACADS—to destroy more than 2,000 tons of the U.S. stockpile of chemical agents—has been accomplished, a major operation has begun to clean up the site. Buildings and equipment must be decontaminated of any residual agent and agent degradation products, with all hazardous waste properly disposed of. This is a difficult task and requires extensive coordination among numerous interested local and federal agencies. A lot must be done, and much can be learned from this effort. It is hoped that this report will aid in the process and point to ways of facilitating the closure process at other chemical agent disposal facilities in the future.
We wish to express our appreciation to the members of the committee—particularly Frank P. Crimi, who took the lead for the study—for their contributions to the preparation of this report by collecting significant data and information, making site visits to JACADS and other facilities under construction or in operation, and writing the report. The committee is also grateful to the Office of the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization and its contractors for the useful information they provided.
The committee greatly appreciates the support and assistance of National Research Council staff members Donald L. Siebenaler, Harrison T. Pannella, Daniel E.J. Talmage, Jr., Carter W. Ford, and Elizabeth Fikre in the production of this report.
Peter B. Lederman, Chair
Charles I. McGinnis, Vice Chair
Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program
Acknowledgments
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 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 participation in the review of this report:
Charles Baronian, Consultant,
Jan Beyea, Consulting in the Public Interest,
Elvin R. Heiberg III, Heiberg Associates, Inc.,
James R. Hunt, University of California at Berkeley,
Walter Loveland, Oregon State University,
Richard S. Magee, Carmagen Engineering, Inc.,
E. Timothy Oppelt, National Risk Management Research Center,
Carl R. Peterson, Consultant,
Mark N. Silverman, Consultant,
Harold P. Smith, Jr., University of California at Berkeley, and
Gordon J. Wozniak, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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 Robert E. Connick (NAS), University of California, Berkeley (professor emeritus). Appointed by the National Research Council, he 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.
Figure, Plates, Tables, and Boxes
FIGURE
1-1 |
Location of JACADS, the Red Hat Storage Area, and other facilities on Johnston Island, |
PLATES
D-1 |
Location of areas on Johnston Island, |
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D-2 |
Location of hazardous waste management units within the Red Hat Storage Area, |
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D-3 |
Sampling Strata G, H, I, J, K, L, M—areas outside the munitions demilitarization building, |
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D-4 |
Red Hat building 850 (SWMU No. 13), |
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D-5 |
Red Hat Area hazardous waste storage warehouse, Building 851 (SWMU No. U21), |
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D-6 |
Red Hat Area hazardous waste storage warehouse, Building 852 (SWMU No. U21), |
TABLES
1-1 |
Munitions and Bulk Containers Destroyed at JACADS, |
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3-1 |
Hazard Categories for JACADS Process Areas, |
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3-2 |
Permit Modifications Submitted for JACADS Closure, |
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3-3 |
Agent Degradation Products Listed in the RCRA Facility Investigation Sampling and Analysis Work Plan, |
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C-1 |
Closure Planning and Implementation Activities, |
BOXES
Acronyms
ACAMS
Automatic Continuous Air Monitoring System
ADP
agent degradation product
AOI
area of interest
CMS
carbon micronization system
COC
chemicals of concern
CSDP
Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program
CSM
conceptual site model
CWA
chemical warfare agent
DAAMS
Depot Area Air Monitoring System
DPE
demilitarization protective ensemble
DTRA
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
ECP
engineering change proposal
EPA
Environmental Protection Agency
FWS
Fish and Wildlife Service
GB
sarin (a nerve agent)
GSA
General Services Administration
HD
distilled mustard agent
HVAC
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
HWMU
hazardous waste management unit
IPT
integrated project team
JACADS
Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System
JCC
JACADS Closure Campaign
MACT
maximum achievable control technology
MDB
munitions demilitarization building
MPF
metal parts furnace
NRC
National Research Council
OSC
Operations Support Command
OVT
operational verification testing
PCB
polychlorinated biphenyl
PMCD
Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization
RCRA
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
RFA
RCRA facility assessment
RFI
RCRA facility investigation
RHSA
Red Hat Storage Area
RMP
risk management program
SIMS
secondary ion mass spectrometry
SSC
systems, structures, and components
SWMU
solid waste management unit
TOCDF
Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility
TSDF
treatment, storage, and disposal facility
TWA
time weighted average
USACAP
U.S. Army Chemical Activity–Pacific
USACHPPM
U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine
USARPAC
U.S. Army Pacific
VX
a nerve agent
WDC
Washington Demilitarization Company
1X
1X indicates that the level of contamination is unknown or that an item is contaminated to the extent that vapor concentrations from the bagged item exceed 0.0001 mg/m3 for agent VX or 0.003 mg/m3 for agent HD.
3X
The 3X decontamination level refers to solids decontaminated to the point that the agent concentration in the headspace above the encapsulated solid does not exceed the health-based, 8-hour, time-weighted average limit for worker exposure. The limit for HD is 3.0 µg per cubic meter of air. Materials classified as 3X may be handled by qualified plant workers using appropriate procedures but cannot be released to the environment or sold for general public reuse. In specific cases in which approval has been granted, a 3X material may be shipped to an approved hazardous waste treatment facility for disposal in a landfill or for further treatment.
5X
The use of 5X indicates that an item has been decontaminated completely of the indicated agent and may be released for general use or sold to the general public in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations. An item is decontaminated completely when it has been subjected to procedures that are known to completely degrade the agent molecule, or when analyses, submitted through Army channels for approval by the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board, have shown that the total quantity of agent is less than the minimal health effects dosage as determined by the Surgeon General. A 5X condition must be certified by the commander or designated representative. One approved method is heating the item to 538°C (1,000°F) for 15 minutes. This is considered sufficient to destroy chemical agent molecules.
5R
(No Agent Hazard) Classification. An agent symbol with five Rs means that all previously contaminated surfaces are decontaminated and analyzed to demonstrate the absence of residual agents. 5R is defined as a room sealed (ventilation turned off) for at least 4 hours at a temperature of at least 70°F prior to sampling and that shows an agent vapor concentration less than the 8-hour time-weighted average concentration for unmasked workers.