Cheezz, can't these guys keep anyting under lock and key?
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/10242.shtml
Canister vanished from Superfund site in Cocke County
June 10, 2000
By J.J. Stambaugh, News-Sentinel staff writer
Contract workers for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enter the Flura Corp. Superfund cleanup site to perform tests earlier this week. In addition to cleanup duties, officials are trying to account for a missing canister of perfluoroisobutylene, a deadly industrial compound. News-Sentinel photo by Paul Efird
NEWPORT, Tenn. -- A pressurized canister of an obscure industrial compound once used by the former Soviet Union as a chemical weapon is missing from a federal Superfund site in Cocke County, officials said.
The 10-pound canister of perfluoroisobutylene, or PFIB, is one of 14 containment cylinders that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials hoped to find on the property of the Flura Corp. on the outskirts of Newport, authorities said.
"We cannot account for the fourteenth cylinder," said Chris Militscher, one of two federal on-site coordinators sent to Cocke County from the EPA's district office in Atlanta to oversee the Superfund cleanup. "We want to know where it is."
While PFIB once was used as an industrial chemical, it fell into general disuse decades ago because it was so hazardous. Its chemical properties, however, led the former Soviet Union to manufacture the gas as a weapon for use against enemy troops.
"It's something a terrorist would have great interest in," Militscher explained. "It literally breaks down the tissue in your lungs, and you start spitting up blood."
He continued: "If you opened it, say, in a subway car, it's so persistent it would be lethal for up to 72 hours.... It's also not immediately detectable other than by people falling down and spitting up their lungs."
Exposure to even small doses of the gas is generally fatal, he said.
It was unknown whether the canister was in the possession of the Flura Corp.'s owner, Dr. Edward Tyczkowski, or if it was possibly stored on the site in an area that hasn't been reached by EPA workers, Militscher said.
"My comfort level would be a lot higher if we knew where the 14th cylinder was," Militscher said. "Maybe it's somewhere on the site, and we just haven't gotten to it yet."
The fact that cleanup workers have been combing the site for more than two months, however, leaves open the possibility that the canister could have been taken off the property by Tyczkowski, a company employee or possibly even someone not affiliated with the facility.
Because Tyczkowski is a chemist, it is not technically illegal for him to possess PFIB, Militscher said. However, because it is a regulated substance, officials are concerned such a large quantity is missing.
Tyczkowski couldn't be reached for comment.
Although officials have declined to discuss pending legal actions against Tyczkowski, internal EPA documents indicate he is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged violations of environmental and safety laws.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Guy Blackwell, who is handling the case, declined comment Friday.
Cleanup workers dressed in "moonsuits" (protective clothing and breathing devices) have been swarming the property at 610 Rock Hill Road since a March 30 administrative order from the EPA shut down the Flura Corp. and allowed the EPA to take control of the property.
Flura Corp. manufactured specialty chemicals for industrial purposes.
The company had previously been cited for numerous violations, including storing hazardous waste without a permit. When state and federal inspectors followed up at the site early this year, they found 11 pressurized canisters of PFIB stored in a shed.
The containers were in such poor condition they could easily have ruptured and discharged their contents into the air, Militscher said.
Workers have found two additional containers since then, he explained, and information was developed that led them to believe a total of 14 were originally kept on the property.
PFIB was only one of 2,200 different chemicals found at the site including phosgene (mustard gas), cyanide and phosphoric acid, Militscher said. Many of the containers are unlabeled, forcing EPA chemists to work in highly dangerous conditions as they try to identify the substances.
Armed guards now patrol the site's perimeter, and the 200 or so people who live within a half-mile of the company's gates have been given emergency instructions to follow in case of an accidental release of chemicals.
The cleanup, which is projected to take up to two years and cost as much as $12 million, has brought officials from the EPA and U.S. Coast Guard as well as contractors from Lockheed-Martin and Earth Tech to Cocke County.
Militscher characterized the property as one of the five worst Superfund sites in the Southeast.
The remaining 13 canisters of PFIB have been secured and will be moved into a special containment device on-site next week to ensure the safety of the community, Militscher said.
The canisters have deteriorated to the point that they cannot be moved off the property safely, so the EPA's stance is that they should remain where they are, he said.
"Transporting them is not an option," he said. "We're still developing a safe and effective treatment."
J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307 or stambaugh@knews.com.
The Los Alamos thing, with missing drives with ALL our Nuclear Secrets, now this. Will any of us survive to see the New year?
Can you say, "CONSPIRACY"
Best Regards,
Don
------------------
The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms;
History shows that all conquerers who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.
Adolf Hitler
-----------------
"Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial, and destroy their rugged- ness.
Get control of all means of publicity, and thereby get the peoples' mind off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and plays, and other trivialities.
Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance."
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, former leader of USSR
[This message has been edited by Donny (edited June 13, 2000).]
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/10242.shtml
Canister vanished from Superfund site in Cocke County
June 10, 2000
By J.J. Stambaugh, News-Sentinel staff writer
Contract workers for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enter the Flura Corp. Superfund cleanup site to perform tests earlier this week. In addition to cleanup duties, officials are trying to account for a missing canister of perfluoroisobutylene, a deadly industrial compound. News-Sentinel photo by Paul Efird
NEWPORT, Tenn. -- A pressurized canister of an obscure industrial compound once used by the former Soviet Union as a chemical weapon is missing from a federal Superfund site in Cocke County, officials said.
The 10-pound canister of perfluoroisobutylene, or PFIB, is one of 14 containment cylinders that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials hoped to find on the property of the Flura Corp. on the outskirts of Newport, authorities said.
"We cannot account for the fourteenth cylinder," said Chris Militscher, one of two federal on-site coordinators sent to Cocke County from the EPA's district office in Atlanta to oversee the Superfund cleanup. "We want to know where it is."
While PFIB once was used as an industrial chemical, it fell into general disuse decades ago because it was so hazardous. Its chemical properties, however, led the former Soviet Union to manufacture the gas as a weapon for use against enemy troops.
"It's something a terrorist would have great interest in," Militscher explained. "It literally breaks down the tissue in your lungs, and you start spitting up blood."
He continued: "If you opened it, say, in a subway car, it's so persistent it would be lethal for up to 72 hours.... It's also not immediately detectable other than by people falling down and spitting up their lungs."
Exposure to even small doses of the gas is generally fatal, he said.
It was unknown whether the canister was in the possession of the Flura Corp.'s owner, Dr. Edward Tyczkowski, or if it was possibly stored on the site in an area that hasn't been reached by EPA workers, Militscher said.
"My comfort level would be a lot higher if we knew where the 14th cylinder was," Militscher said. "Maybe it's somewhere on the site, and we just haven't gotten to it yet."
The fact that cleanup workers have been combing the site for more than two months, however, leaves open the possibility that the canister could have been taken off the property by Tyczkowski, a company employee or possibly even someone not affiliated with the facility.
Because Tyczkowski is a chemist, it is not technically illegal for him to possess PFIB, Militscher said. However, because it is a regulated substance, officials are concerned such a large quantity is missing.
Tyczkowski couldn't be reached for comment.
Although officials have declined to discuss pending legal actions against Tyczkowski, internal EPA documents indicate he is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged violations of environmental and safety laws.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Guy Blackwell, who is handling the case, declined comment Friday.
Cleanup workers dressed in "moonsuits" (protective clothing and breathing devices) have been swarming the property at 610 Rock Hill Road since a March 30 administrative order from the EPA shut down the Flura Corp. and allowed the EPA to take control of the property.
Flura Corp. manufactured specialty chemicals for industrial purposes.
The company had previously been cited for numerous violations, including storing hazardous waste without a permit. When state and federal inspectors followed up at the site early this year, they found 11 pressurized canisters of PFIB stored in a shed.
The containers were in such poor condition they could easily have ruptured and discharged their contents into the air, Militscher said.
Workers have found two additional containers since then, he explained, and information was developed that led them to believe a total of 14 were originally kept on the property.
PFIB was only one of 2,200 different chemicals found at the site including phosgene (mustard gas), cyanide and phosphoric acid, Militscher said. Many of the containers are unlabeled, forcing EPA chemists to work in highly dangerous conditions as they try to identify the substances.
Armed guards now patrol the site's perimeter, and the 200 or so people who live within a half-mile of the company's gates have been given emergency instructions to follow in case of an accidental release of chemicals.
The cleanup, which is projected to take up to two years and cost as much as $12 million, has brought officials from the EPA and U.S. Coast Guard as well as contractors from Lockheed-Martin and Earth Tech to Cocke County.
Militscher characterized the property as one of the five worst Superfund sites in the Southeast.
The remaining 13 canisters of PFIB have been secured and will be moved into a special containment device on-site next week to ensure the safety of the community, Militscher said.
The canisters have deteriorated to the point that they cannot be moved off the property safely, so the EPA's stance is that they should remain where they are, he said.
"Transporting them is not an option," he said. "We're still developing a safe and effective treatment."
J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307 or stambaugh@knews.com.
The Los Alamos thing, with missing drives with ALL our Nuclear Secrets, now this. Will any of us survive to see the New year?
Can you say, "CONSPIRACY"
Best Regards,
Don
------------------
The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms;
History shows that all conquerers who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.
Adolf Hitler
-----------------
"Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial, and destroy their rugged- ness.
Get control of all means of publicity, and thereby get the peoples' mind off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and plays, and other trivialities.
Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance."
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, former leader of USSR
[This message has been edited by Donny (edited June 13, 2000).]
