October
19, 2000
One
agency says another released false data on air studies
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,205006783,00.html
By
Joe Bauman, E-mail: bau@desnews.com
Deseret News staff writer
One federal agency is saying another released false information related to atmospheric studies in Salt Lake City. An official of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency public affairs office, Lt. Col. Andy Walker, responded to a Deseret News inquiry about the agency's study by faxing a statement saying it is part of a U.S. Department of Energy study.
"The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is participating in a Department of Energy-funded study of atmospheric processes in an urban mountain valley - the Salt Lake Valley - during October 2000," the statement says. "The objective of the experiment, which is being directed by DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is to gain a better understanding of atmospheric conditions affecting urban air quality in mountainous areas." The fax includes pages of detail about the Vertical Transporting and Mixing Experiment, which is being carried out by the DOE. It adds that further questions should be directed to Dawn White of the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Hanford, Wash., is a lead agency for the VTMX tests, which are going on in Salt Lake City during October. The experiment is described as an atmospheric study in an urban mountain valley.
But the experiment does not include the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, according to White. White telephoned the Deseret News to say the Defense Threat Reduction Agency may have given the newspaper "some misleading information." The defense agency "indicated to you that the work that was going on that they were involved in was part of VTMX and that I was a point of contact for that, and that's actually not true," she said. "That (defense study) is actually being conducted as a completely separate study. It happens to be another atmospheric study that's going on in the Salt Lake area around the same time as the VTMX study. "So actually, it's a completely separate study with completely separate goals."
The one similarity is that both studies are looking at atmospheric processes, "but for two different, completely different, reasons," she said. They are both in Salt Lake City and when they are finished "there may be an exchange of data . . . But that is sort of more of an information exchange versus any sort of formal tie between the two studies." White added, "I'm not the point of contact for that study. I really have very little information on it." Bennett said the Defense Threat Reduction Agency is participating in the VTMX study.
"While
they (DOE scientists) are doing all of their experiments to figure out
wind currents and temperature and that sort of thing, we are
piggybacking
on their experiment," he said. The defense group is using measurements
of the tracer chemicals to check its models, he added. The information
can be used to prepare agencies "to respond to any type of event where
particles may be suspended in the air, distributed over an area."
Does
that mean a terrorist attack? "Not necessarily terrorism, though that,
of course, is included within the realm of possibilities," he said. According
to Bennett, the information also can be used in responding to other emergencies,
such as chemical spills and industrial accidents.
Tracer
gas toxic effects from pfpc@istar.ca (Andreas Schuld)
LETTER
DESCRIBING BREAKDOWN PRODUCTS
http://www.afcee.brooks.af.mil/pro_act/ti/reg/7782.htm
SAFE
HANDLING PROCEDURES FOR SF6 EQUIPMENT
http://www.usbr.gov/power/data/fist/fist5~9/5~9_1.htm
SF6
- MSDS
http://www.advancedspecialtygases.com/sf6msds.htm
ORNL
REVIEW
http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev25-2/net1525.html
ARL
FIELD RESEARCH PROJECTS
http://www.noaa.inel.gov/news/OldProjects.html
FED
REGISTER showing emissions not addressed in Kyoto protocol?
http://www.epa.gov/spdpublc/title6/snap/612frm2.html
"One
commenter requested that the use restrictions on SF6 be altered to allow
its use as a discharge test agent for all civilian as well as military
aircraft fire suppression systems. The commenter reported that research
efforts by private companies, the U.S. Navy, and the National Institute
for Standards and Technology have identified SF6 as the preferred test
agent for simulating halon 1301 in aircraft fire suppression systems.
The commenter indicated that the amount of SF6 released in developing and
certifying new commercial aircraft will be approximately 1,000 pounds per
year or less." [!!!!]
Dielectrics
Research
http://www.eeel.nist.gov/811/esg/dielectrics.html
DRAGON
Project
http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/hats/miscprojects/dragons1.html
TRITIUM
& SF6 (Rocky Flats)
http://tis.eh.doe.gov/web/oeaf/oe_weekly/oe_weekly_94/oe94-30.html
SF6
PROPERTIES
http://properties.nist.gov/semiProp/gases/sf6.html
HALOCARBONS
AND OTHER GASES
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/gg97rpt/chap5.html
National
Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory Western Ecology Division
http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/publications/current/abstracts/tingey.htm