L.A. Times�Web Site Sunday, July 30, 2000 Workers Accuse Army of Cover-Up By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer �����PORTLAND, Ore.--Eighteen men who were sickened last year while building an incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot are accusing the Army of hiding leaks of highly toxic nerve and mustard agents on the day of the incident. �����Their lawyer, James E. McCandlish, said he wants an injunction to halt construction of the incinerator in eastern Oregon near Hermiston until certain safety protections are in place. �����He plans to file a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland asking for the injunction and seeking compensation and damages for his clients, some of whom can no longer work, he said. �����The Army has been storing chemical agents at the depot since 1962, and says it has never had a release that threatened the health of employees, the public or the environment. �����Mary Binder, an Army spokeswoman, said several agencies, including the Army, the state, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, had concluded that chemical agents stored at the depot did not cause the workers' sickness. �����"No one who has looked at that data, who is trained to interpret that data, has concluded that the chemical agents stored at depot were involved in the Sept. 15 incident," Binder said. �����Built during the Cold War, the Umatilla depot contains more than 3,000 tons of deadly nerve and mustard agents, or about 11 percent of the nation's chemical-weapons stockpile. They are to be destroyed after completion of the incinerator, scheduled for October 2001. �����The depot has been hit by problems in the last year. �����On Dec. 30, 1999, a system built to broadcast warnings of an emergency at the depot sent out a false alarm. Not only was there no leak, but the warnings -blared out through loudspeakers -told people in Spanish to get indoors, but not in English. �����Also, there were at least 11 bomb threats called in over two months earlier this year, temporarily halting work on the incinerator. �����The 18 workers represented by McCandlish were among 34 who were overcome by fumes on Sept. 15, he said. They work for a company contracted by the Army to build the incinerator.
