Entries from November 4, 2007 - November 10, 2007
Dew of death' found at refuge
Toxic material forces closure of programs
COMMERCE CITY — The discovery of a toxic material called "the dew of death" at Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge has forced the closure the refuge and the cancellation of four wildlife, natural and photo programs this weekend.
Sherry James, a park ranger, told the Rocky Mountain News that about 150 people were expected to take part.
The refuge was closed Wednesday after a blistering chemical weapon developed and produced during both World Wars, called Lewsite, was found in a restricted area near the refuge. State officials said it could be a week to months before the refuge re-opens while the area is examined.
Lewsite, also called lewisite, had the fragrance of geraniums. First attempts to develop it occurred during World War I, but it was not used. It wasn't used in World War II, either.
The chemical is used with mustard gas and can cause vomiting, pulmonary edema and other effects, eventually leading to death. The chemical can penetrate rubber and clothing.
Workers were digging a trench around the five-acre Lime Basins site connected to the 1943 production of the deadly chemical, which is an oily, colorless liquid in its pure form, when air monitors detected traces of it.
"This work was in an area of the arsenal that was known for disposal of chemical agents," Dr. Ned Calonge, Colorado Chief Medical Officer said in a statement Thursday. "The closure of the refuge is the appropriate precautionary measure until we are certain there is no risk to human health."
Workers, who were wearing protective clothing, were decontaminated and none showed any symptoms of coming into contact with the blistering agent.
Jeff Edson, manager of remediation for the state health department, said the difficulty of the cleanup will depend partly on whether the material is in the soil or in a container. If it is found in a drum or vial it will take longer.
Edson said his department and the Environmental Protection Agency will review the Army's plan. He said finding the material was not a surprise and no one was endangered.
Sandra Jaquith, spokeswoman for the citizens' Site Specific Advisory Board of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, said the refuge should be shut down whenever such work is under way.
"There are likely a lot of things out there they don't know about," she said, "and they don't know where they're located."
The 17,000-acre site 10 miles from downtown Denver opened in 1942 and manufactured several weapons of mass destruction, including sarin, before a cleanup began in 1985. Traces of sarin have been found several times in the area outside the portion that was designated a wildlife refuge. Portions of it opened last year.
The former Rocky Flats plutonium manufacturing plant west of Denver also has become a wildlife refuge site, also over the opposition of some environmental groups.
Gregor Gable
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PrintEditorial: A new tone in Congress
Hearing highlights how the Yucca Mountain project is a disaster in the making
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/nov/04/566620948.html?yucca
One of the Bush administration's top energy goals has been to get Yucca Mountain opened as the burial site for the nation's nuclear waste. Shoving safety concerns expressed by Democrats aside and coddling the pseudoscience of government agencies were among its strategies for achieving that goal.
A hearing on Yucca Mountain last week before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was the first since Democrats gained control of Congress, and it truly showed what a difference an election can make.
Even Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., gave Democrats credit for the way they handled the hearing. "It was a different tone," he told the Sun's Washington reporter, Lisa Mascaro. "The fact that the Democrats held this hearing is a very positive move in trying to get alternatives (to a Yucca repository) on the table."
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a candidate for president, had called in July for the hearing. She expressed impatience at the Bush administration's stonewalling on the release of scientific information on safety at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Determining how much radiation from Yucca can leak into the environment without creating a health hazard is the role of the Environmental Protection Agency. A federal court in 2004 rejected the EPA's initial radiation standard. A revision released in 2005 was denounced at public hearings and placed back under review.
Now, two years later, and with the project's scheduled licence application just eight months away, the agency still has not issued an updated radiation standard.
Clinton's direct, no-nonsense questioning at the hearing of an EPA representative got to the heart of the matter. After 20 years of work, the EPA still cannot say when its scientific analysis of Yucca Mountain's effect on human health will be ready.
The admission adds credence to Nevada's point that a "safe" radiation standard for Yucca Mountain is an impossibility. We are encouraged that all the Democratic presidential candidates are on record as opposing a repository at Yucca Mountain, and that a new tone on this issue is being heard in Congress.