DEQ fines Army's Umatilla Chemical Depot Hazardous waste was fed into incinerator with instruments disabled From Bend.com news sources Posted: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 12:09 PM Reference Code: PR-14403 March 23 - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued penalties totaling $33,600 for violations at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF) located near Hermiston. A Notice of Violation and Assessment of Civil Penalty have been issued to the U.S. Army’s Program Manager for Elimination of Chemical Weapons and the Washington Demilitarization Company for violations of their Hazardous Waste Treatment and Storage Permit (HW Permit). Each of these co-permittees was assessed penalties totaling $16,800 for four Class 1 violations of the HW Permit. The cited violations involved the feeding of hazardous waste into a liquid incinerator at UMCDF on four separate days during a shakedown testing period while required operational Rolling One Hour Average (ROHA) instrumentation was disabled. The disabled instruments would have monitored the feed rates of the hazardous waste into the liquid incinerator. That monitoring is necessary for the proper operation of the Automatic Waste Feed Cut-off (AWFCO) systems. The AWFCO would discontinue feeding to the liquid incinerator if the feed rate exceeded the capabilities of that incinerator. For safety reasons, proper operation of the ROHA instrumentation and AWFCO are required by the facility’s permit during shakedowns, trial burns, and post-trial burns. UMCDF is a hazardous waste storage and treatment facility that will use four incinerators to destroy a stockpile of chemical warfare agents that has been stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot since 1962. The facility is owned by the U.S. Army and is operated by Washington Demilitarization Company. Each of the co-permittees has 20 days to request a contested case hearing before the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission or its hearings officer regarding these violations. The civil penalties are due and payable 10 days after the order becomes final.