Army Adjusts Chemical Weapon Disposal Tracking Following Internal Criticism
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The U.S. Army recently took steps to improve monitoring of destruction of chemical warfare materials, Defense Environment Alert reported last week (see GSN, May 4).

The moves followed a 2008 finding by internal auditors that the service's Chemical Materials Agency was not always correctly recording disposal of mustard blister agent stored in bulk containers. The problem occurred when "heels" of dried material threw off the weighing of the ton containers.

"Our review showed that amounts recorded as destroyed in the Chemical Accountability Management Information Network (CAMIN) weren't always accurate for chemical agent-filled ton containers," Army auditors said in an August report titled Agent Accountability at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. "As a result, the agency didn't have complete assurance that amounts recorded in the system were accurate which increased its chances for heightened levels of program scrutiny by federal, state and international organizations that have a vested interest in the elimination of chemical weapons."

Inside EPA obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act request.

There was no indication that any actual agent had escaped destruction, according to Defense Environment Alert.

The Chemical Materials Agency did not dispute the findings and acknowledged the importance of maintaining accurate records of the country's chemical-weapon inventory. The Organization for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons receives the agency's data to determine whether the United States is adhering to demilitarization obligations set by the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In a prepared statement, the agency said it "has reviewed procedures for recording ton container agent destruction in CAMIN and has determined the amount of agent listed on the Certificate of Destruction as demilitarized is the amount in CAMIN, the official accountable record."

"Adjusting the weights of the ton containers in CAMIN would require, at a minimum, a supplemental treaty declaration," said the agency, which instead recommended an "ad hoc" statement within the reporting system to explain discrepancies between the original recorded weight of chemical agent and its weight when drained for destruction (Defense Environment Alert, May 12).