LATEST NEWS
Saturday, January 8, 2005
Weapons destruction
lags
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — A review of
the first four months of operations at the weapons disposal facility near
Hermiston shows the destruction of chemical weapons is far behind the expectations
of the state, Army and its contractor, the Washington Demilitarization Company.
A total of 327 sarin-filled M55 rockets were destroyed this past
week, the first five days of normal operations at the Umatilla Chemical Depot
since a 22-day suspension was lifted.
That brings the total number of rockets destroyed since the incinerator
complex began operations in early September to 2,600. In comparison, an identical
weapons disposal facility in Anniston, Ala., also operated by the WDC, had
destroyed more than 15,000 M55 rockets within the same time period, six times
the number at the Umatilla Depot.
Depot officials were careful not to set production goals for weapons
destruction, saying instead that they wanted to take the first several months
of operations slowly for safety reasons. But the processing numbers are an
indicator of overall performance, as are any suspensions in operations.
Since beginning operations, the depot has suspended activities twice.
Production at the weapons disposal facility has been affected by
a number of personnel and procedural mistakes, as well as a few mechanical
problems, officials said.
“We didn’t do as well in the startup period as I thought we would
have done,” said Don Barclay, site manager for the Army, in an interview
Friday. “A lot of people focus on the numbers, but that is not the point.
The rockets will be gone someday. It’s a matter of how well we do it. ...
We’re not going where we need to be going yet.”
Barclay, and his counterpart at the WDC, Doug Hamrick, called for
the recent suspension of operations after a series of incidents, notably
a worker error that resulted in the unclamping of a working filter unit in
the ventilation system of the building, putting at least two workers in danger
of chemical agent exposure.
The first suspension, which lasted five days in September, also resulted
from worker error: Two WDC employees, without proper protection or authorization,
took a short-cut through a room storing liquid sarin drained from the M55
rockets.
Mechanical problems have also nagged the facility. Just this past
week, workers fixed a long-standing problem with the drainage system for
the chemical agent emptied from the M55 rockets. The system was giving inaccurate
measurements for the amount of agent drained from the rockets.
“When we began, we certainly wanted sustained operations,” said Rick
Kelley, spokesperson for the WDC at the depot. “But we recognize that this
is a new plant. It’s a new system. It would be great if everything worked
great every time, but it’s an industrial plant.”
All WDC employees, more than 700, recently went through re-training.
WDC managers are providing additional oversight of operations for at least
30 days to ensure that workers are prepared to safely continue destroying
the weapons.
“We’re disappointed we’re not further along then we are, but we’re
hopeful we’ll see some significant progress soon,” said state regulator Dennis
Murphey, administrator for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s
chemical demilitarization program.
Local governmental officials said they are supportive of the decisions
officials are making at the depot and relieved that safety concerns are overriding
production concerns.
“I’m very pleased to hear they are not going to hurry things,” said
John Wenholz, a Morrow County Commissioner. “I think it is a process that
will take some time. I think they are doing an excellent job out there.”
Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty said he never expected
operations at the depot to be flawless.
“I’m not critical at all,” he said.