Umatilla Depot violations net $184,000 DEQ fine

'Significant' violations of hazardous waste permit alleged

From Bend.com news sources
Posted: Monday, May 10, 2004 12:56 PM
Reference Code: AR-15395

May 10 - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued penalties totaling $184,800 for hazardous waste permit violations at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF) located near Hermiston.

The UMCDF is a hazardous waste storage and treatment facility that will use four incinerators to destroy a stockpile of chemical weapons that have been stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot since 1962. Incineration of the chemical agents is expected to begin later this year. The U.S. Army owns the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, which is operated by the Washington Demilitarization Company.

DEQ issued a Notice of Violation and Assessment of Civil Penalty to the U.S. Army’s Program Manager for Elimination of Chemical Weapons and to the Washington Demilitarization Company for significant violations of their Hazardous Waste Treatment and Storage Permit.

Both of the responsible parties received penalties of $92,400. DEQ assessed penalties for each day of 11 separate days in July 2003 on which the parties committed the same permit violations.

DEQ fined the U.S. Army and Washington Demilitarization Company $46,200 each for feeding hazardous waste into the disposal facility’s metal parts furnace without operating an Automatic Waste Feed Cut-off (AWFCO) System and $46,200 each for feeding hazardous waste into the metal parts furnace without operating the furnace’s Pollution Abatement System Carbon Filtration System. At no time during these activities were chemical agents being processed.

The violations took place during a “shakedown” or testing of the metal parts furnace between July 18 and 31, 2003.

Shakedown is the processing of surrogate materials in the incinerator prior to the performance of a surrogate trial burn. Due to the nature of the surrogate materials, shakedown is regulated as hazardous waste operations.

The permittees had installed a software “jumper” to the system that bypassed the Pollution Abatement System Carbon Filtration System and, as a result, exhaust gas discharged into the atmosphere without passing through the carbon filters. The metal parts furnace was also operating without the benefit of the Automatic Waste Feed Cut-off instrumentation designed to immediately shut off the flow of hazardous waste and stop continued emissions.

The Army and Washington Demilitarization Company have 20 days to request a contested case hearing before an administrative law judge regarding these violations. The civil penalties are due and payable 10 days after the order becomes final.

Persons with questions may contact Dennis Murphey, administrator of DEQ’s Chemical Demilitarization Program, or Shelly Ingram, public information specialist, at DEQ’s Hermiston office at (541) 567-8297.