Operations
at the Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerator complex are back in full swing
after extensive retraining of staff. Staff photo by Don Cresswell
HERMISTON — Additional
training for all 700 incinerator workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot,
in light of two temporary shutdowns caused by worker errors, seems to be
working. There are fewer interruptions and more efficient destruction of
chemical weapons reported.
Production numbers at the Depot are up, with nearly 8,000 rockets
destroyed at the start of the week, almost 9 percent of the total M55 rockets
stored at the Depot. Hundreds of rockets are now being destroyed each week,
compared to only 24 each week last fall.
U.S. Army Site Project Manager Don Barclay said he is pleased with
the changes he is seeing, both in the training and on the ground inside the
incinerator.
“I’m seeing improved management control throughout,” he said. “It’s
significant improvement in the skill levels and decision-making process.”
That’s good news, considering that four months into the depot’s destruction
of its stockpile of chemical weapons, the state, the Army and its contractor,
Washington Demilitarization Co., acknowledged the Depot was running far behind
expectations.
The Anniston Army Depot in Alabama had destroyed more than 15,000
M55 rockets within the same time period, six times the number at the Depot.
Now, coming at the end of six months of operations, the time when
the Army officially evaluates the work of its contractor for pay and other
benefits, changes are noticeable. And those changes emphasize training and
a better understanding of the operation.
Refresher courses taken last winter to remind workers about agent
boundary warnings are now incorporated into yearly classes that each worker
must take, said Robert Chavez, the man in charge of creating and scheduling
the training necessary for every Depot worker.
Additional classes are on-going, as well, to better explain to workers
not in the control room — central command for the incinerator’s operations
— how the incinerator works and how certain procedures they are required
to do affect other areas of the site.
“What we’re doing right now is starting to teach them the theory
behind what they are doing,” Chavez said. “It gives them an in-depth knowledge
of how things work.”
On the walls of a windowless classroom — indeed, on walls throughout
the trailers on site — laminated posters now specify the colors of signs
inside the incinerator warning of boundaries not to be crossed. The incinerator
is the plant destroying munitions filled with deadly nerve and blister agents.
Twice during prior operations, workers at the Depot ignored those
warnings and entered contaminated rooms, risking exposure to the chemical
agents and resulting in the additional training of the Depot’s workforce.
At the Depot earlier this month, sitting through one of their first
training classes, five students listened attentively to senior instructor
Jim Neufeld as he explained the Depot’s labeling system for hazardous chemicals.
Of the five in the class, four were to be munitions handlers and one was
to be an escort for international experts who visit the Depot to ensure the
United States is complying with an international treaty to destroy its stockpile
of chemical weapons.
They were told of the Depot’s safety procedures, with special emphasis
on warning markings for dangerous products and the signs marking the agent
boundaries inside the incinerator.
“It’s kind of overwhelming in the beginning,” said 35-year-old Jay
Gibson, who was training to be a munitions handler. “There are a lot of acronyms
going on. The more you hear it, the easier it is to comprehend. It’s a little
like high school, I guess. But you’re there for a purpose; it’s not like
you have to be there.”
Dennis Murphey, program administrator for the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, said he has been feeling more comfortable with the
workforce’s conduct.
“From what I’ve heard, my staff believes communications are a lot
better than they were before,” Murphey said. “Communications are a lot more
precise from the control room operators to those out in the field.”
The Depot stores about 12 percent of the nation’s supply, which it
began incinerating last fall.
