Minute amounts of mustard agent fumes were detected yesterday within a storage igloo at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Depot personnel discovered the vapor leak during the course of regular inspections of a structure used to store large containers of mustard agent. The fumes were thought to have come from a leak in one of the containers.

The leak does not pose a threat to the public as the storage building has a filtering system that does not allow fumes to escape into the environment. An additional, powered system is added following the detection of any leak. The container with the leak is expected to be found, examined, fixed if warranted and then decontaminated.

Back