Foes of the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele County fired back on Thursday against an allegation they had forged notes critical of plant safety.
Last month, Chemical Weapons Working Group released handwritten notes and copies of internal documents that group spokesman Craig Williams said came from Steve Jones, safety director at the incinerator. But Jones has repeatedly denied he is the mole who sent reports and notes out of the plant."Absolutely, I did not write them," Jones told the Deseret News on Friday.
"We're standing by Steve Jones because he says they're not his," said plant spokesman Mark Mesesan.
Plant operators are investigating to see who leaked the documents, according to Mesesan.
Jones was fired in 1994 after criticizing the plant's safety and was reinstated last year following a prolonged court battle. Chemical Weapons Working Group, an anti-incinerator umbrella organization based in Berea, Ky., championed his cause.
According to Williams, after Jones was reinstated he surreptitiously sent the group a stream of acidic memos pointing out deficiencies in the plant and also shipped them many documents.
The handwritten memos, dated from August 1999 through Jan. 10, include phrases like "These incinerators just simply won't work," "Not all ACAMS (agent vapor alarms) work," "a low level exposure of agent to at least one person," "tremendous mechanical problems," and "We have released agent."
Environmentalists seized on the last, saying it shows that contrary to official denials, nerve gas vapor leaked into the outside environment during a June 4, 1999, power failure. But a review of the documents indicates that during the power failure, vapor seeped from the main munitions demilitarization building into the mechanical equipment room connected to it by a ventilation duct, and not outdoors. The plant's air circulation is cleaned by a filtration system.
Plant officials say the memos give a distorted and sometimes untrue version of events but add that they believe a mole there gave the environmentalists the material.
The notes and reports detail mishaps that were confirmed by plant and state officials, including incidents in which nerve gas rockets were jammed in feed chutes, agent vaporized out around the joints of machinery, agent migrated to observation corridors during a power failure, a worker's protective suit partly melted, and another time when a worker had to open his face mask to breathe while he was in a contaminated area because he had failed to properly hook up an air hose.
The documents also say the plant's method of calculating nerve agent concentrations in the air is flawed, with a potential to vastly underestimate actual levels.
Soon after the date when environmentalists say Jones stopped sending them information, he publicly defended the the incinerator as safe. In response, Williams released the notes and documents. Jones denied writing them or providing the other material.
"I've not provided the Chemical Weapons Working Group with any information since I've been back to work," he said. "And I certainly did not send any handwritten notes or things of that effect."
He said the handwriting on the notes looks like his own, but "I'm saying they're not my documents."
On Thursday, Williams and other foes of the plant held a press conference in the Salt Lake City Council chambers in which they hotly insisted that Jones did send the information. They turned over copies of telephone records showing calls to Jones' phone at incinerator offices, shipping receipts and a handwriting analysis.
The analysis by Forensic Development & Research, Bountiful, was completed Tuesday. Forensic documents examiner John D. Moyes concluded that, within limitations necessary because he only saw copies and not originals, "it is probable" the same person wrote them.
The known examples of Jones' handwriting included copies of an allegation of safety hazards at the plant, dated Sept. 16, 1994, and sent to the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division; an affidavit; and a bond signed by Jones.
One of the calls recorded in the telephone bills was to a number in Edgewood, Md., where Williams said Jones stayed during training at Edgewood Arsenal. The call was on Nov. 3, 1999.
The number connects to the Comfort Inn Conference Center, the Deseret News verified. Williams challenged plant officials to show that Jones was not at that motel at that date.
Much of the information in the memos was so technical that the group could not have forged the material if it had wanted to, he said. People are mentioned in the notes whom the group does not even know about other than the memos, he said.
"It's abhorrent" to be accused of forgery, Williams said.
"We don't -- we've never been accused of anything like that."
Mesesan said the plant is safe and that it has not released nerve agent to the environment. He denied that any workers were contaminated.
Meanwhile, the plant's own investigation is continuing. EG&G Defense Materials Inc., Tooele, operates the incinerator under a contract with the Army. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of EG&G Technical Services, Gaithersburg, Md. Corporate headquarters is carrying out the review, Mesesan said.
At the same time, the environmentalists said they are giving information to federal investigators. At least three agencies are interested in the material, Williams said.