Associated Press
March 26, 2002

Stick with incineration, local officials say

HERMISTON, Ore. (AP)--Eastern Oregon officials have told the U.S
Army to stick with incineration and forget about using a new technology
to destroy deadly mustard gas.

Mario Fiori, the assistant secretary of the Army, suggested Tuesday
that mustard gas stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot could be
neutralized with water instead of burned. He said that method would
shave at least a year off of weapons destruction and save about $150
million.

Fiori told the panel of local government officials that he wanted to
know where the public stands on the use of something other than
incineration to get rid of the more than 2,000 one-ton containers of
mustard stockpiled near here.

The reaction wasn't positive.

"It's taken this long to get where we are, where the citizens of
Umatilla feel better about incineration," Umatilla Mayor George Hash
said. "If we give them something new and if they only perceive that it
will delay the project, it will upset them."

Safety and the fear of wasting water were the major concern aired by
the participants.

"Save your money and do what the people want," said Frank
Harkenrider of Hermiston. "As for water, water is a very precious in
this county. Let's forget the whole thing and get on with it."

Others wanted to know just how well the new technology would work.

"Like you, we're interested in getting rid of the material as
quickly as possible, but we've been told all along that this is state of
the art, that incineration is the best there is," said Morrow County
Judge Terry Tallman.

The plan for neutralization released by the Army in January shows
that mustard agent stored at a Maryland site will be neutralized with
water. The wastewater would then be shipped to a commercial treatment
facility. Neutralization will save the Maryland project $250 million and
get the agent destroyed several years faster, according to the report.

"The alternative technologies we'll be forced to use in a few places
will work," Fiori told Tallman. "I want to make sure we're operating the
most efficient way possible. I believe the process of neutralization is
fairly simple."

Fiori, who has been manager of the storage and destruction of the
Army's chemical weapons since November, said if Oregon did approve
neutralization for the mustard agent, the rest of the chemical weapons
stockpiled at Umatillawould still have to be incinerated.

Wayne C. Thomas, administrator for the chemical demilitarization
program at the Department of Environmental Quality, said they'd rather
stick with the technology that the DEQ and Army decided on back in 1995.

"We researched a decision that incineration is the best available
technology, and that's what we should go with," Thomas said. "The Army
supports incineration, let's continue on that path."

Trial burns at the $1.2 billion incinerator are to start in May.
Regular incineration is scheduled to begin in February 2003 and was to
be complete in 2007.