LOCAL
Saturday, March
20, 2004
Study finds people
living near chemical weapons incinerator are in little danger
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — Residents
in communities surrounding the Umatilla Chemical Depot are less likely to
die from an accidental release of chemical agent than they are of being struck
by lightening, according to a recent study by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
FEMA’s study, which examined the potential hazards for residents
in the Irrigon, Hermiston, Stanfield, Echo and Boardman areas, is the first
by the federal government on the risk of local fatalities due to the closeness
of the depot.
“It’s a baseline risk, without the possibility of evacuation,” said
Barry Anderson, FEMA program manager for the local Chemical Stockpile Emergency
Preparedness Program (CSEPP). “This report did not look at any of the improvements
that are ongoing.”
Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a shelter-in-place response,
Oregon’s primary protective action for residents in the case of an accidental
release of nerve or blister agent from the depot.
The depot stores 3,717 tons of the agent, which it’s tentatively
scheduled to start incinerating in July. Local emergency responders and government
representatives have spent several years working on response plans in the
event of a catastrophic accident. The FEMA study took into account only the
equipment in place now.
It found the area northwest of Umatilla, between the Morrow County
line and the Umatilla River, has the highest risk with residents living with
the possibility of one chance in 270,000 years that they will die in any
given year due to a lethal dose of chemical agent.
“One in a million is considered a very small risk,” said J. Krause
Wilson, a decision science product group manager for Innovative Emergency
Management, the Atlanta-based firm that conducted the study.
“One in 270,000 means your risk of fatality in any given year due
to your proximity to the stockpile is less than your risk of being struck
by lighting,” he said.
Residents in Hermiston face a 1 in 1.31 million chance of fatality,
and those in Stanfield and Echo face a one in 1.94 million chance of fatality.
Boardman residents are each looking at odds of 1 in 2.78 million years.
Ironically, residents in Irrigon, the city closest to the depot,
are the safest, with a 1 in 3.03 million chance.
The study was presented publicly to the communities earlier this
month, at a CSEPP Governing Board Meeting held at the Outreach office in
Hermiston. Researchers examined population characteristics and weather patterns,
among other factors, in determining risk. More than 39 million hazard scenarios
were examined in order to determine each community’s risk level.
Overall, “the baseline risk is very low,” Wilson said.
But Wilson said the risk could be reduced further with better evacuation
routes planned for the cities and with an increased amount of recirculation
filters placed in the communities. Right now, Irrigon is the only community
with recirculation filters in many of its buildings, adding significantly
to its increased safety, the study found.
The filters were put in place years ago as a pilot project, and have
since been proven to be very effective at capturing chemical agent from the
atmosphere, Wilson said.
For local CSEPP planners, the study confirmed they were on the right
track to increasing the protection of residents.
CSEPP recently installed seven cameras in the area at a number of
intersections, said Casey Beard, director of the Morrow County Emergency
Management Agency. It’s also in the process of linking all traffic signals
to a safety center based in Hermiston, so that they can be controlled to
provide easy direction to motorists needing to evacuate in the event of an
accident.
Also, CSEPP is working with the Oregon Department of Transportation
in order to widen some streets in Hermiston and to provide signage and other
help along evacuation routes.
“The study didn’t tell us anything new,” Beard said.
But it did reinforce what CSEPP planners already knew.
“It turns out that emergency management on-site has been on to a
very good thing,” Wilson said.