East Oregonian
March 9, 2002

Deadline set for depot plan on extra waste

By HEIDI SODERSTROM
of the East Oregonian

The U.S. Army has been given a Sept. 1 deadline to make a decision on what to do with secondary wastes generated during the incineration of chemical weapons at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, said Tom Beam of the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The Environmental Quality Commission met Friday in Portland to consider changes to the permit that the DEQ is suggesting the Army make to Condition C3.

The DEQ staff report to the EQC states that Condition C3 requires the Army to make a decision on the treatment method to be used for agent-contaminated carbon and report that decision to the DEQ.

The date is the only change that the EQC required to the staff report concerning the Hazardous Waste Treatment and Storage Permit for the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility just west of Hermiston, Beam said.

The rest of the report was approved as is.

"The EQC decided to move that into section D so it will be a condition for start-up agent operations and not surrogate operations. So it means February 2003 vs. the surrogate trial burns May 25," said Mary Binder, public information officer for the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Which means the treatment method to be used for agent-contaminated carbon now has to be given before chemical weapons burns instead of surrogate burns, Binder explained. She said it's a date that was proposed by Don Barclay, site project manager at the depot.

"We believe it is a decision we are going to do everything we can to meet," Binder said.
She added that incineration at the Umatilla Chemical Depot is still on schedule.

"So for us, May 25 is still the schedule date for surrogate burns and February 2003 is still
on schedule for agent disposal," she reiterated.

The anti-incineration group called G.A.S.P., the Oregon Wildlife Federation and others sent out a news release Friday stating their support of the permit modification.

"We hope the department and EQC will not be swayed by the Permittees fear mongering tactics," the release said. "We believe that the EQC clearly has the legal authority to approve the proposed modifications in order to try to protect human health and the environment. We agree that the permit modification is needed so that DEQ staff, Permittees and the public will all know what criteria is being used to evaluate facility readiness."

Beam said the DEQ is happy with the decision and the way it came out.
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Reporter Heidi Soderstrom can be reached at 1-800-522-0255 (ext. 1-303 after hours) or e-mail: hsoderstrom@eastoregonian.com