Tooele Army Depot (Salt Lake City, Grantsville, Dugway: how much, new house, buy)

[rennieclan]

I was talking to someone here about the Grantsville/Tooele area and he mentioned the Army Depot and the possiblity of nerve gas still being there and possibly a threat. Does anyone have info on this? Thanks.

[SergeantL]

Originally Posted by rennieclan

I was talking to someone here about the Grantsville/Tooele area and he mentioned the Army Depot and the possibility of nerve gas still being there and possibly a threat. Does anyone have info on this? Thanks.

There is a website for Toole Army Depot. It seems it is one of several chemical weapons disposal depots. In the United States.They have been in the business since WWII.

In either the late 60s or very early 70s, there was a release of nerve agent somewhere in Utah, which resulted in the death of sheep. I believe this was a purposeful release as a test of agent life, but they miscalculated the wind drift, and the agent drifted off the range. I don’t know how much was released, but the life of a nerve agent is extremely brief. This is necessary so that occupying troops do not need to stay in chemical suits to survive. There is no possibility that any residual chemicals from that release are of any threat. Also understand that most weapons nerve agents are binary. Two separate chemicals are stored in a warhead and are not dangerous until mixed together, and the mixing takes place after the shell has been fired and spun.


Finally, if you are worried about nerve agents, be very careful how you use insecticides. Weapons grade nerve agents have their roots in insecticides. There are still cases in the United States were children and agricultural workers are brought into hospitals with nerve agent symptoms from overexposure to insecticides

[Blindog]

There seems to be some misunderstandings going on here so I will attempt to clear up a few things. First, there is no nerve gas located at Tooele Army Depot. There are 3 different Army bases located in the Tooele County area, they are as follows, Dugway Proving Grounds, Tooele Army Depot, and Deseret Chemical Depot. At one time Tooele Army Depot existed as one command with Deseret Chemical Depot. Deseret Chemical Depot was refered to as the South Area, and Tooele Army Depot was refered to as the North Area. There was a split of those commands in the late 90's and now they are separate commands. As far as the supposed release of nerve agent mentioned in SergeantL's comment, this did occur but at Dugway Proving Grounds, and a very long time ago. SergeantL did bring up some very true comments, which is that the Nerve Agent does disperse in the air very quickly and as long as ive lived in the Tooele Valley there has never been a release from the Actual Chemical Depot that was detected by the county detection locations that im aware of. Deseret Chemical Depot is located approx 25 miles south of the town of Tooele. For many years Deseret Chemical Depot has been actively disposing of the dangerous nerve agents in a furnace system. There is if any a very small amount still at that location and measures are being taken to get rid of it. In the many years since WWII the chemical agents located on that site are fewer than they ever have been and the destruction of chemical weapons is nearing completion. I hope this settles any misunderstanding of possible nerve agent releases that you may have had.

In addition, SergeantL's comment about the root of Chemical Nerve Agent being found in insecticides is very true. In fact you are more likely to have an exposure to chemical of that family while working your garden. I recall one of my friends actually having a reaction to chlorodane (this may not be the correct spelling of this but its pronounced like that). Seems he was spraying some tomatoe plants in his backyard with out the use of a resperator mask.



Blindog

[GeoSullivan]

Reading the previous posts brought back some memories. I was stationed at TEAD in 1968 and coordinated visits to the Air Force Bonneville Bombing Range northwest of Salt Lake. Although not directly involved (so this is all rumor and to be treated as such), I believe this is an interesting story.

A routine test request from Army HQ was sent to the Chem Depot. asking about aerial dispersion patterns for nerve agent under consideration (it was reputed to be a cousin to the CS gas every recruit in basic training gets very familiar with). The test was organized to coincide with an Air Force training flight to avoid back charges and was scheduled for a day with no wind forecast. After the material was dispersed, while it was still suspended, there was a freak wind (a "dust devil") that mixed the test chem with ground dust containing "inactive" materials from previous tests in the same area and blew it over the grazing range for some local sheepherders. The dust didn't affect the sheepherders or their dogs, but hit the sheep causing death with symptoms similar to meningitis in people. The Army bought somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 head of sheep at considerably above market price allowing the sheep herders to retire and buy new houses in Salt Lake City. The sheep were buried in trenches dug with bulldozers in the desert, location unknown, and reports on the actual chemical analysis were classified and sent to Army HQ. Initial tests showed the reaction was specific only to sheep with no residuals in humans, so it was joked that if we ever got mad at a foreign entity, we could eliminate every head of sheep overnight to mess-up their economy without bothering anything else.

If you enjoy this little story, remember it is only a repeat of rumors I heard while I was in the Army, so we know how reliable that can be.

[markg91359]

Not to be critical, but I sort of chock this kind of comment up to some others we occasionally see. Apparently, there are people out there who are extremely concerned about whether the local water contains trace amounts of various elements, whether radioactive waste exists within 200 miles of their home, the residual from atomic testing 50 years ago, radon gas etc.

Honestly, there are plenty of problems in Utah, but these are nowhere near the top of the list.

[Chango]

As said before, the incinerator is in Rush Valley, about 25 miles south of Tooele. They were also supposed to have been done buring several years ago, but it just keeps going. I lived in Tooele for about 5 years while they burned and survived, though. My skin even stopped glowing green and I stopped coughing up blood and pieces of my lungs only 6 months after moving too!

[FlyersFan]

Originally Posted by markg91359

Not to be critical, but I sort of chock this kind of comment up to some others we occasionally see. Apparently, there are people out there who are extremely concerned about whether the local water contains trace amounts of various elements, whether radioactive waste exists within 200 miles of their home, the residual from atomic testing 50 years ago, radon gas etc.

Honestly, there are plenty of problems in Utah, but these are nowhere near the top of the list.

With 20,000 lung cancer deaths a year attributed to radon by the EPA it should at least be half way up the list ?