LOCAL
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Safety rules Depot
plans
By JEANNINE KORANDA
of the East Oregonian
jkoranda@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — Grumbling
over the exclusion of funding for an evacuation plan in the Hermiston area
in the event of an incident at the Umatilla Chemical Depot was high on the
list of questions for depot leaders Monday at a media information session.
Work on the depot incineration complex has continued in recent months
and the site is slated to start destroying the chemical weapons stored at
the base this spring. But safety is a key part of that process, Army and
incineration officials stressed.
“Our responsibility is to get the plant ready to work as safe as
we can, and that is what we are working toward,” said Don Barclay, site project
manager.
Barclay, Depot Commander Lt. Col. David “Doc” Holliday and Washington
Group International Project General Manager Doug Hamrick all deferred questions
about evacuation plan funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), which approves funding for projects related to the Chemical Stockpile
Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP).
The evacuation project in question is the second phase of a plan
to improve infrastructure for evacuation plans for the Hermiston area, but
it was not granted the requested $3 million in December.
Dennis Murphey, administrator for the Chemical Demilitarization Program
through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, pointed out that
an executive review panel through the governor’s office had determined in
2002 that the shelter-in-place program was adequate. That is the primary
planned response for the Hermiston area in case of a chemical accident at
the depot.
He couldn’t say what factor the evacuation plan would play in the
final approval of the Environmental Quality Commission.
The various managers connected with the depot and incineration facility
all said safety was their top focus. Hamrick said employees were currently
completing an operational readiness review that included 1,200 criteria that
must be met before the final assessment.
He estimated it would be March before they declared the plant ready.
Even once the incineration process begins, the process will accelerate
slowly, he said, to be sure everything is working as planned. During the
first shift, one rocket will be processed through the plant, he said. The
plant is designed to process 40 rockets per hour.
After the first rocket, the facility will be closely monitored to
see how it reacted to the process. The same process will be repeated on the
second shift. “We want to see how the plant responds but also how the people
react,” Hamrick said.
The Umatilla Chemical Depot is one of eight chemical weapons storage
sites around the country set to destroy 31,500 tons of chemical weapons.
According to information distributed by the Umatilla Chemical Disposal Outreach
Office in Hermiston, 26.1 percent of the national stockpile, or 8,220 tons,
already has been destroyed.
A ninth site, Johnston Atoll, an island southwest of Hawaii, has
completed its operation and is closed after destroying 2,031 tons. Tooele,
Utah, which stores the majority of the country's VX nerve agent, an estimated
13,616 tons, has destroyed 7,566 tons so far.
The Umatilla Chemical Depot stores 3,717 tons of chemical weapons,
or about 12 percent of the national stockpile. Its stockpile includes mustard
gas, a blistering agent, GB Sarin gas and VX nerve agent.
Other chemical depots are in Pueblo, Colo.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Anniston,
Ala.; Blue Grass, Ky.; Aberdeen, Md.; and Newport, Ind.
Contact Jeannine Koranda
at (800) 522-0255 (ext. 1-226 after hours) or by e-mail jkoranda@eastoregonian.com.