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Former Groom Lake employees sue government

Defense and intelligence agencies used secrecy to hide hazardous waste violations at the Groom Lake air base in Lincoln County, where workers without protective gear watched barrels of chemicals burn in unlined trenches, a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court contends.

The barrels containing sealants, solvents, hardeners and paint wastes were routinely hauled from California to the Groom Lake base, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, thrown in the trenches, covered with a thick matting of combustible waste and ignited, according to the 48-page complaint filed by Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University attorney.

"During incineration, this top layer ignited the barrels beneath, causing explosions and clouds of hazardous gas," the lawsuit says.

Turley represents a Las Vegas widow, Helen Frost, and six unnamed plaintiffs, who are described in the lawsuit as current or former base workers.

In a sworn statement made Sunday, Frost said her husband, Robert Frost, who died in 1989, "was very concerned about the number of people (from the base) with skin problems, cancer and heart problems."

"He stated that he was concerned that working at Groom Lake might be making these people sick," said Helen Frost, who claimed last year in a federal lawsuit that was denied that her husband's death from a liver disorder was linked to his exposure from toxic fumes at the base.

The latest lawsuit says Robert Frost and other workers would sometimes enter the trenches to retrieve materials, probably bringing them into contact with residue that contained dioxins, suspected cancer-causing agents.

Between July and November 1988, Robert Frost's skin developed thick scaling characteristics, Helen Frost's statement says.

"The scaling became so bad that the skin on his face would split, crack and bleed. His fingernails began to peel off. On various occasions my husband came home from work in pain, screaming that his eyes and face felt like they were on fire," Helen Frost's affidavit says.

A motion accompanying the complaint asks U.S. District Judge Philip Pro, who has been assigned the case, to allow the other plaintiffs to remain anonymous because they fear coercion, harassment or physical harm for discussing activities at the base.

A similar motion was filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 2, when Turley sued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, claiming her agency failed to inspect the secret base.

Monday's lawsuit names three defendants: Defense Secretary William Perry, who has direct control over top secret programs; National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, the White House official responsible for intelligence organizations at the Groom Lake base; and Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall, whose agency handles administration matters for the base.

The complaint says Lake is a defendant because he has authority to change policies governing secrecy at the Groom Lake base, where next-generation reconnaissance aircraft and planes coated with radar-absorbing materials such as the F-117A Stealth fighter have been tested.

Turley, reached at his hotel in Las Vegas, said, "We have no indication that the burning has stopped. But looking at it, it may have gone back as far as 20 years."

He said this lawsuit will force the government to acknowledge that the base exists, and therefore its operators must comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which stipulates how hazardous wastes at federal facilities must be handled and disposed.

The lawsuit says Nevada's Environmental Protection Division has had authority to monitor federal hazardous waste activities in the state since 1985.

Division Administrator Lew Dodgion said Monday that a member of his staff, Thomas Fronapfel, the only environmental official with a clearance to enter the base, has approved a plan the Air Force submitted to his office for investigating the trenches.

Dodgion said the trenches have been closed and covered, but he said he does not know the details of the Air Force's plan, because "we're talking about an area that requires certain levels of security clearances that I don't have."

Turley said, "The clock is now running. If the military continues this charade of denying the existence of Area 51 (the Groom Lake base), they will have to be prepared to lie or mislead in court proceedings."