LOCAL
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Depot permit change
sought
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — The incineration
process may be extended by more than five years if a change in a hazardous
waste storage and treatment permit at the Chemical Weapons Depot is not approved,
say officials with the county and state Department of Environmental Quality.
The proposed modification to the permit, requested by the U.S. Army,
seeks to change the point in the incineration process where air pollutant
levels are measured. In testing done recently at the depot, employees found
the facility can’t both meet the current requirements of the permit and finish
its destruction of chemical warfare agents on time.
“We’re no longer working with designs on paper,” explained Sue Oliver,
spokesperson for the DEQ, which is monitoring the incineration of the depot’s
munitions. “We’re working with a real-world furnace doing real-world things.”
The problem is with the placement of the emissions test in the pollution
abatement system, which cools the exhaust gases from the four incinerators,
removes particles and neutralizes the gases released when the agents are
destroyed.
The original permit guiding the process, issued in 1997, says emission
levels have to meet a certain level at a certain compliance point. But each
pollution abatement system has five main components, and the compliance point
is at the fourth stage — instead of the fifth and final stage, Oliver said.
When the original permit was constructed, it was thought that the
final stage of the incineration process wouldn’t be on at all times, she
explained. However, because of updated procedures, that last stop is now
a requirement, she said.
The last stop, the carbon filters, significantly reduces the amount
of total emissions, Oliver said. Because the filters are on all the time,
the emissions levels entering the atmosphere should always be in compliance
with the permit. But because the testing point for the emissions level is
before the carbon filters, the testing will show that emission levels don’t
meet requirements.
That would result in a slowdown in the disposal of the weapons. Instead
of destroying 30 to 40 rockets per hour, the depot would only be allowed
to dispose of a handful per day.
“It will cost the government millions more and won’t improve public
safety one iota,” said Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty, who is
an avid supporter of the modification request.
Right now, the plan is to destroy the rockets within 20 months after
incineration begins. If the permit modification is denied, the process would
take four times longer — about 84 months.
Doherty said it’ll cost the public $72 million a year to dispose
of the weapons. Increasing the time period would increase those costs.
But Karen Jones, founder of GASP, a group of local residents who
support safe disposal of the chemical weapons and are opposed to incineration,
said she’s not convinced the change in the permit is a good thing.
“During the permit process we were repeatedly told that the facility
would be able to meet all emissions standards prior to that second bank of
carbon filters,” she said. “Those filters were only supposed to be used as
a safety check, like a gas mask on the system. (The proposed change) is one
more instance when the technology has failed and they’re trying to get around
the commitment that they made.”