It’s a drive of more than 40 miles from the main entrance of Dugway Proving Ground to the remote testing sites on salt flats on the western side of the massive installation.
The location is so remote that the pavement gives way to a dirt road, where even the vegetation gives way to the harsh conditions.
There are really only two landmarks on the horizon that aren’t distant mountain ranges — both are a collection of shipping containers, including towers created by stacking the containers on top of one another.
One of these faux cities in the salt flats is target practice for the Air Force. The other houses Jack Rabbit II, a Department of Homeland Security experiment to test how chlorine gas is dispersed in an urban environment.
Testing began on Monday and a total of six trials will be conducted by the end of the week. Five- and 10-ton loads of chlorine have been released at the test site, while an array of sensor equipment measures how the toxic gas moves around barriers, into homes and dissipates into the air.
George Famini, the director of the Chemical Security Analysis Center for DHS, said the testing will inform future protocol on how emergency responders react to accidental, and potential intentional, releases of chlorine.
“Accidental releases of toxic industrial chemicals happen everyday,” he said. “Our role is to understand and prepare the American homeland for that.”
Chlorine is used in water purification, plastic synthesis, pharmaceuticals and more, according to Shannon Fox, the program manager and lead scientist for DHS.
“The concern is that chlorine in particular is one of the most toxic industrial chemicals, but it’s incredibly important to our economy and way of life,” she said. “Because it’s so important, it’s transported in these 90-ton railcars — millions of tons every year throughout the United States.”
Hundreds of millions of tons of chlorine gas are transported every year by road, water and rail, according to DHS. Much of that chlorine gas is transported in bulk through urban areas considered high risk.
Chlorine is the second-most transported toxic inhalation hazard, trailing only ammonia, Famini said.
Fox also said the threat of terrorist attacks with a toxic gas like chlorine are possible. Chlorine gas has reportedly been used in Iraq and Syria, as well as World War I.
Exposure to chlorine gas can cause blisters, fluid in the lungs and difficulty breathing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Domestically, we are looking to address both concerns, the accidental or potential intentional release,” Fox said. “Although small releases and accidents occur regularly with no harm, every now and then a catastrophic accident can happen where people die because these are toxic chemicals.”
A 2005 chlorine gas spill that resulted from a train collision killed one person and three people died from chlorine gas inhalation that was spilled as a result of another train accident in 2004.
Chlorine gas is transported in pressurized containers that keep it in a liquid state, but chlorine boils at -29 degrees Fahrenheit. If the tank is breached, the chlorine immediately boils, creating a plume of greenish-yellow gas and frost on nearby surfaces from condensing water vapor in the air.
Chlorine is also highly reactive and will quickly combine with organic and inorganic material in water or air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The environmental impact of chlorine is considered to be low by the EPA, and plants and animals are unlikely to store the chemical.
The information gathered from the open air testing of chlorine gas should give researchers information to aid in hazard mitigation and reduction, Fox said.
“It’s never been tested at the scales that we would see in one of these catastrophic accidents,” Fox said. “The accidents that have occurred, there’s never anyone there to collect data to be able to get this information.”
Those results will be used to update the emergency response guidebooks from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which serve as a quick reference source for those transporting hazardous materials and first responders. A new guidebook is released every four years, with the latest edition from 2012.
Being able to test the chlorine in a such a remote location is one reason Dugway was selected as the test site for Jack Rabbit II. Damon Nicholson, project manager for Dugway, said the facility is working in a support role for DHS but is providing equipment, manpower and conducting the tests.
“One of the things about Dugway is that it’s so vast and so isolated,” Nicholson said.
The test site centers around the dispersion tank, which can hold up to 20 tons of chlorine gas, mounted on a 25-foot diameter concrete pad. The tank is surrounded by dozens of metal shipping containers, designed to represent urban barriers and streets on a 400-foot by 600-foot gravel pad.
Any of the four ports on the tank can be fitted with explosive bolts, that can simulate a breach of the tank when ignited. Anders Wiborg, program manager at the Jack Rabbit II site, said the tests can only commence if the wind is between 2 to 4 meters per second and within a 30 degree range.
For the round of testing this week, only the bottom port of the tank is being used, Wiborg said, to better regulate the data collected on dispersion.
In addition to the metal containers, there are two simulated houses at the test site with carpet and sheetrock. One unit has its air conditioning unit closed off and the other has an HVAC system to help researchers determine infiltration by chlorine gas and how long chlorine may be present in building materials, Wiborg said.
The three-story tower comprised of shipping containers that looms over the test site is being used to monitor how chlorine moves in multi-story structures. Chlorine is heavier than air and generally settles in low-lying areas, so researchers are testing to see if people can move to higher floors of a building to avoid exposure, according to Wiborg.
Sensors from 200 meters to 11 kilometers (about 7 miles) are placed around the test site to monitor how far the chlorine gas disperses. There are additional sensors located at the border with the Utah Test and Training Range and Interstate 80 north of Dugway.
“We anticipate that (11 kilometers) would be the furthest distance that we would see any kind of recordable concentrations,” Nicholson said.
Utah Valley University also partnered on the project and supplied firetrucks, an ambulance and other vehicles to determine what happens if a first responder attempts to drive into a cloud of chlorine gas. A mannequin equipped with sensors and outfitted in firefighting gear was placed on top of an ambulance to determine whether it’s safe to remain in a vehicle near chlorine gas or if it’s possible to get higher than the gas by climbing onto your vehicle, Nicholson said.
Testing for the Jack Rabbit II project will continue next year but the simulated urban environment will be removed. Larger quantities of chlorine gas, up to 20 tons, will be released and downwind sensors will model the dispersion of the gas in an open environment.