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Saturday, January 22, 2005

1,300 sarin rockets destroyed in past three weeks at Depot

By AMYJO BROWN of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com


HERMISTON — More than 1,300 sarin-filled M55 rockets have been destroyed in the past three weeks at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The destruction of the rockets brings the total to nearly 3,600.

“Things are going very well at the plant,” Doug Hamrick said Thursday at the monthly meeting of the Citizens Advisory Commission, a local watchdog group for Depot activities.

Hamrick is the plant manager for the Washington Demilitarization Co., the contractor operating the weapons disposal facility for the U.S. Army.

The Depot, one of eight sites around the country storing the nation’s stockpile of chemical weapons, stores about 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and blister agent in a variety of munitions moved to the depot in the 1960s. The Depot began destruction of its weapons last fall under orders by the U.S. Congress and an international treaty.

In the little more than four months of operations, the Depot has had two suspensions of operations, putting it behind Army, state and contractor expectations.

This week, Depot workers began processing rockets on both the day and night shifts, Hamrick said. On one day this week, 551 rockets were processed, about 30 rockets an hour.

“That is the largest number of rockets destroyed in one day at any of the incineration sites,” Hamrick said.

Dennis Murphey, manager for the state Department of Environmental Quality’s chemical demilitarization program, said he and his staff have been watching Depot activities closely.

Murphey said he is seeing improvement since operations at the Depot resumed in late December ending a 22-day suspension that resulted from two workers unclamping a filter’s seal in the ventilation of the plant and allowing a trace amount of chemical agent to escape.

“The sense that my staff has gotten is that the communication (in the facility) has gotten much better,” Murphey said. “I’m encouraged to see improvement both on the workers standpoint and on the mechanical side.”

Also at the meeting, Hamrick announced that the employees at the plant have worked more than 2 million hours without a work-related injury.

Recently, the employees at the weapons disposal facility were awarded the 2005 Oregon Governor’s Occupation Safety and Health Employer Award, nominated by the Greater Hermiston Chamber of Commerce.