By Hal McCune
of the East Oregonian
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| The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility passed one year of operation last September. EO file photo |
HERMISTON — Risk analysis shows the Hermiston area is considerably safer than it was a year ago, thanks to a productive year of chemical weapons destruction at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
That fact isn’t lost on members of the public who have paid close attention to the build-up to incineration and the first full year of operation.
“I feel safer,” said Judy Simmons of Umatilla. “The worst is about over,” she added regarding the rockets filled with sarin nerve agent, while her husband, Harold, nodded. “That’s the one to worry about,” she said.
The Army agrees.
Although the 52,190 M55 GB rockets destroyed through mid-day Tuesday represent less than 10 percent of the depot’s original chemical agent stockpile, the Army’s risk assessment calculations show the overall storage risk has been reduced by nearly 55 percent.
That’s because the GB rockets with sarin agent are more volatile than the rockets with VX nerve agent or containers with mustard agent also stored at the depot.
The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has destroyed about 57 percent of the original stockpile of 91,442 GB rockets. It also has destroyed 88 GB bombs.
Because they pose the greatest danger in storage, GB rockets have been the first weapons to be incinerated at the depot. According to Army risk assessments, the GB rockets account for 85 percent of the public risk, rockets with VX nerve agent represent 14 percent and the remaining chemical weapons and containers less than 1 percent.
“I’m especially pleased knowing that with each processing milestone, we reduce the public risk associated with storing these weapons,” said Don Barclay, the Army’s site project manager for the disposal facility.
Despite the progress, some local residents remain apprehensive about the proximity of chemical weapons.
“I still think about it once in a while,” said Rick Guerrero of Stanfield. “You never know if you’re safe or not.
“It’s scary.”
The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility began incinerating rockets on Sept. 8, 2004. In September 2005, the facility began processing GB bombs along with rockets.
Last October was the disposal facility’s most prolific month since incineration operations began.
The facility destroyed 7,489 GB M55 rockets in October, compared to the previous monthly high of 5,473 in June. During October, the facility matched the highest single-day rocket processing total for a continental U.S. chemical demilitarization facility: 642 GB rockets on Oct. 24. That week, Oct. 24-30, also was the highest weekly total for the facility at 2,566.
After a record October, Barclay said it was more significant that the facility marked one year of safe work days on Oct. 23 without a lost-time accident. He said a big production month “wouldn’t have been as fulfilling” if the safety record had been compromised.
One of the biggest challenges for the disposal facility has been dealing with rocket fires. There have been six since GB rocket processing began, four last spring and early summer and two last month.
All have occurred after the sarin agent had been drained and the rockets were being sliced into pieces in the explosive containment rooms before being dropped into an incinerator.
While the fires have caused no danger to workers or the environment, they have slowed down processing, although the last fire caused no damage and processing resumed the same day.
The Army continues to investigate the fires. The most likely culprit is aging rocket fuel.
Congress started the chemical weapons disposal program in the 1980s out of concern for the stability of rockets in long-term storage. Based on an international agreement, the nation’s entire supply of chemical weapons must be destroyed by 2012. The Umatilla Chemical Depot is on pace to meet that goal, according to Barclay.
While some local residents remain concerned about the danger of living near chemical weapons, Teresa Digregorio of Umatilla may represent the norm for folks who’ve been in the area for years and become accustomed to having the Umatilla Chemical Depot as a neighbor.
“I don’t think about it,” she said