Depot begins campaign to destroy VX projectiles
Wednesday ceremony marks anniversary of igloo explosion
The East Oregonian
HERMISTON - The Umatilla Chemical Depot fired up its latest weapons disposal campaign Wednesday.
Depot workers began moving 155 mm (approximately 6.2 inch) diameter VX-filled artillery projectiles at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, which then started the disposal process at 3:30 p.m.
Depot Public Affairs Officer Bruce Henrickson said the facility should finish the first batch of 144 artillery projectiles today, when the metal parts furnace destroys them.
"Overall it's the same slow and deliberate start-up that we do on each munitions campaign," Henrickson said.
Washington Defense Group built and operates the disposal plant for the U.S. Army. Doug Hamrick, project general manager for the organization, said it will gradually increase the processing rate as it confirms the facility is working properly.
Each projectile contains six pounds of VX, an agent so lethal a drop is deadly to the touch. The depot's remaining VX disposal campaigns include the 155 mm projectiles and 8-inch diameter projectiles, plus VX-filled land mines.
This campaign is the 10th of an eventual 13 individual munitions campaigns Army contractors will complete at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. The facility has already destroyed the depot's entire stockpile of VX-filled rockets and aircraft-mounted spray tanks, as well as all of its sarin-filled munitions.
Since the plant destroyed the last VX rocket on Jan. 23, it has undergone an eight-week plant changeover to process the 155 mm projectiles. Workers converted and tested equipment during the changeover, including on the plant's furnaces.
The disposal plant has three furnaces - the liquid incinerators, a deactivation furnace system and a metal parts furnace. The rocket disposal required the liquid incinerators and deactivation furnace, but the new campaign will use all three.
The Army plans to complete the 155 mm artillery projectiles campaign by late summer, and then it will start in on the 8-inch diameter artillery projectiles. Then the team will destroy VX-filled land mines.
If there are no significant incidents or delays, the Army plans to complete the entire VX agent disposal campaign by the spring of 2009. The plant will then changeover to process HD mustard blister agent bulk containers. HD mustard agent destruction will be the third and final agent disposal campaign at Umatilla.
Since the depot started processing chemical weapons on Sept. 7, 2004, it has completed nine munitions disposal campaigns, including 91,442 GB (sarin) rockets and warheads, 47,406 GB 155 mm diameter artillery projectiles and 14,519 VX rockets and warheads.
When the chemical munitions destruction mission is complete, crews will thoroughly clean the disposal plant and disassemble it according to environmental permits. Under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act, the Army plans to close the Umatilla Chemical Depot after it has processed all the weapons there and met closure requirements.
The Army has stored chemical munitions at the depot since the 1960s. They served as a Cold War deterrent but are now aging, obsolete and prone to leaking. The depot stores the weapons in highly secure storage "igloos" as they await destruction. The Army's chemical munitions disposal program in Oregon and several other states destroys the weapons according to the international Chemical Weapons Convention treaty.
Workers' deaths commemorated
Additionally, about 60 people Wednesday commemorated the 64th anniversary of six civilian workers who died from an explosion at the depot.
On the evening of March 21, 1944, an igloo filled with 500-pound bombs exploded and killed the workers. People felt the force of the blast 25 miles away and heard it even further.
Surviving members of one of the victims, as well as an office worker on duty that night, attended the commemoration, along with dignitaries from the Hermiston area. Sgt. 1st Class Mack Dyer rang a bell six times, once to honor each victim. Depot Commander Lt. Col. Bob Stein presided over the ceremony. |
