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Thursday, February 24, 2005

Applicants sought for Citizens Advisory Commission

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


HERMISTON — In what will be a complete turnover of membership, five seats will be opening soon on the local watchdog group for the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The Citizens Advisory Commission advises Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Depot activities and politics. The nine-member commission meets once a month in Hermiston. Its members include Oregon or Washington residents who live within a 50-mile radius of the Depot.

The seats opening include five of the nine commission members, many whose terms expired more than a year ago.

They continued serving while the incinerator at the Depot neared and began its process of burning chemical weapons, which have been stored on the Depot’s grounds since the 1960s. More than 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister agent are contained within a variety of munitions, and all must be destroyed according to a Congressional mandate and an international treaty.

Disposal of the weapons began last September, and the first four months of operations included several shutdowns because of worker errors. The workforce at the incinerator, which includes about 700 people, recently went through retraining and destruction of the chemical weapons has been steady.

The issue now getting much of the commission’s attention is the U.S. Army’s decision to consider looking at moving chemical weapons across the country to sites such as the Depot which have chemical weapons incinerators built and operating. There are three others.

The move would be for the Army to be more cost effective and to help it meet its deadline of 2012 for the destruction of the weapons.

CAC Chairman Robert Flournoy, a Umatilla resident, said he has heard a lot of community concern regarding the idea. Kulongoski and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have publicly opposed moving chemical weapons.

Flournoy also said he has been reassured by the Governor’s office that there will be no changes to the commission members in the near future.

“There’s too much going on right now,” Flournoy said. “We don’t anticipate that happening right away.”

But five commission members’ terms expired a year ago, including Flournoy’s, and the governor will be looking at names for reappointments or replacements over the next several months, said Anna Richter-Taylor, the governor’s spokesperson.

“It’ll be sooner rather than later,” she said.

There is no deadline set for the appointments or for applications submitted by community members.

“We would welcome applications,” Richter-Taylor said, adding that the Governor’s office also keeps such forms on file for future openings as well.