Tests are being done after an odor was detected during drilling at Fort Detrick. It's concerning because the odor is coming from an area that's been contaminated with toxins.

Contaminants were buried at the site when Fort Detrick's Biological Weapons program was ended in the 1970s.


Robert Sperling with Fort Detrick said employees noticed the odor last Wednesday while they were installing a well. But that information wasn't released until Saturday morning.

"Once they smelled the odors, they stopped what they were doing, and they put on protective gear, they put on a respirator," he said in a phone interview with 9 NEWS NOW's Lindsey Mastis

Sperling said vapor didn't travel off base and therefore, is not a threat to the community.

"We had did some tests downwind and really nothing was detected past about 10 feet from the actual drill," Sperling said.

Rachel Pisani is with the Kristin Renee Foundation, an organization that's investigating a possible link between contamination at Fort Detrick and cancer.

She said she is concerned about this latest incident.

"If they have an odor that's that prominent, they can't tell me for sure that it's not toxic. They were telling us for years that everything was okay in Area B, and now we know that it's not," she said.

Fort Detrick officials say at this time, they do not know whether the odor is hazardous. They are waiting for results from water testing. Those results should be available next week.