LATEST NEWS
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Mayor,
council urge opposition to more chemical weapons
By ANDREW BINION
of the East Oregonian
abinion@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — The mayor
and City Council sent a message Monday night urging four of Oregon’s top
government officials to “vigorously and adamantly oppose” any action that
might lead to more chemical weapons being brought to the Umatilla Chemical
Depot.
The city urged Gov. Ted Kulongoski, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.,
and U.S. Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to also oppose
funding any study of transporting chemical weapons across state boundaries.
The Department of Defense announced last month it wanted to study
the transfer.
Kulongoski quickly denounced the plan. And Wyden announced Jan. 27
that he will help sponsor federal legislation to prevent moving the nation’s
stockpile of chemical weapons to destruction facilities already operating,
such as the incinerator at Umatilla.
Approved unanimously and read in its entirety by Mayor Bob Severson,
the resolution said the city has supported incinerating the chemical weapons
stored at the Depot “as the quickest way to get these deadly chemicals out
of our backyard” and notes Hermiston is “a few scant miles downwind of the
Depot.”
It called studying the transfer of weapons “an unconscionable breach
of faith by the U.S. Army” and went on to upbraid “people who do not live
here” for suggesting the area would benefit from the Depot burning more chemical
weapons.
“We need to get rid of what we have,” Severson said. “We don’t need
any more.”
About 12 percent of the nation’s supply of chemical weapons, or 7.4
million pounds of nerve and blister agents, is stored at the Depot in a variety
of munitions.