Tuesday December 13, 2005

Associated Press

HERMISTON, Ore. -- A milestone's been reached at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Hermiston.

AP      The Umatilla Chemical Depot in eastern Oregon.

The depot has now destroyed half of the 91,442 sarin-containing rockets that had been stored there.

 Plans call for destroying all the rockets by the end of 2006.

 The chemical weapons disposal program began in the 1980s, because of concerns' about the rockets' stability during long-term storage.

 Besides rockets, bombs, projectiles, land mines and spray tanks are also stored at the Depot.

 Rocket disposal at the Umatilla Depot began in September of 2004.

 In September 2005, the facility began processing sarin-containing bombs along with the rockets. To date, 88 bombs have been destroyed.