From Wikipedia:
“The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, is a strategic reserve of the United States… established in 1925 as a strategic supply of gas for airships, and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the Space Race and Cold War.
“By 1995, a billion cubic metres of the gas had been collected and the reserve was US$1.4 billion in debt, prompting the Congress of the United States in 1996 to phase out the reserve.”
Couldn’t they have just, you know, untied the straps and let it drift away?