TOOELE, Utah, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- An intensive search around a chemical weapons depot in Utah Thursday failed to turn up a reported intruder and also found no indication that the heavy security around the facility had been breached.
Operations at the Deseret Chemical Depot, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, were suspended Thursday morning when an alarm was triggered after an unidentified person dressed in dark clothing was spotted near the fence that surrounds the base around 9:30 a.m. MDT.
"It turned out this was just an intruder, and that's all we know," Army Col. Peter Cooper told reporters after troops and police combed the area in and around the depot, which is used to store and dispose old chemical stockpiles of mustard gas and other deadly nerve agents.
Details remained somewhat sketchy late in the day, but base officials said a small group of Utah National Guard soldiers patrolling the perimeter spotted a person in dark clothing within the perimeter of the depot and gave chase. Roadblocks were quickly set up and helicopters began an aerial search.
"They responded appropriately and did everything they were supposed to do," Cooper said.
There was an unconfirmed media report that the guardsmen had surrounded a suspect, but the report did not pan out.
Security at the Deseret facility was increased after Sept. 11 due to concerns that terrorists might attempt to get inside and either steal chemical agents or cause a deadly spill on the grounds.
"All of our county people went into action and were ready to go in the event there was a chemical spill," Tooele County Supervisor Steve White told Salt Lake City radio station KSL.
Deseret's incinerator is part of a program to eliminate the Army's chemical weapons stockpile by 2004. Information released in 2000 by the federal government stated that 40-percent of the weapons would be processed at the Utah base.
Details on the amount and types of toxic munitions still at the base are no longer available, but the Deseret News said earlier this year that the stockpile totaled more than 1 million pieces of ordnance containing some 22.2 million pounds of various agents.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
