HERMISTON
Officials to discuss Umatilla hazards
3rocket-incineration fires promptplans to improve safety
June 3, 2005
HERMISTON -- The state Department of Environmental Quality has begun reviewing materials provided by the Umatilla Chemical Depot that explain the reason for three recent fires at the rocket-incineration site.
Dennis Murphey, the administrator of the chemical-demilitarization program for the DEQ, said that the fires happened as the rockets were being cut in a containment room.
Although the sarin, a deadly nerve agent, already had been drained from the rockets, the fires were enough of a concern that the agency halted the destruction of the chemical weapons at the Hermiston depot.
On Thursday, depot officials met with the DEQ to discuss
plans for making the depot safer, Murphey said. The DEQ had requested documents
about what caused the fires and what the depot can do to reduce their frequency.
Murphey said the DEQ expects to have an answer within the next few days about when the depot will be allowed to resume destroying the weapons.
The depot had about 12 percent of the national stockpile of chemical weapons when the incineration project started in September.