Court gives incineration opponents time to file evidence

SALEM, Ore. - An Oregon Appeals Court judge gave a group opposed to incinerating chemical weapons at the Umatilla Army Depot 10 days to file briefs with additional evidence they could not present in lower courts.

But presiding Judge Walt Edmonds noted Friday that burning the weapons, which could start next week, will likely begin before the court rules.

Edmonds said he would also give the state Environmental Quality Commission time to reply to briefs by the opposition group GASP, which had filed a request for an injunction to block the incineration. On Monday, a Multnomah County judge denied that request, saying it needed to go to the Court of Appeals, where the issue is already pending.

On Friday, Department of Justice attorney Robert Foster told the appeals court panel not to lose sight of the larger issue.

Going ahead with the incineration of the rockets, artillery shells and other weapons containing nerve and mustard agents "is the right thing to do," said Foster, who is representing the U.S. Army.

"We have an opportunity to close Pandora's Box," he said, adding that the United States is under treaty and statutory obligations to get rid of the weapons.

GASP attorney Richard Condit said his clients never took the position that the summary judgment that sent the case to the appeals court "should be the be-all, end-all in the case."

Incineration was to have begun this week but was postponed at the last minute, possibly until next week. Monitoring of the ventilation system during a recent trial showed larger amounts than expected of a surrogate chemical in the system's charcoal filter banks.

The depot near Hermiston harbors about 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapons, which were stockpiled there beginning in 1962. Burning the weapons should take six years and cost $2.4 billion

The Hermiston-based GASP says burning the 7.3 million pounds of weapons is risky and poses a threat to public health. Two previous cases were decided in the state's favor and are pending in the Oregon Court of Appeals.