East Oregonian
Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Oregon DEQ grants permit modification for test burns

By the East Oregonian

HERMISTON - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality recently approved a permit modification that approved the Metal Parts Furnace Surrogate Trial Burn Plan for the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

Trial burns will be conducted using surrogate, or non-chemical agent, materials, which are more difficult to destroy than chemical agent.

Several metal compounds will be fed to the furnace during the trial burn to simulate the maximum expected metal burn rate during agent operations, according to DEQ officials.

The trial burn plan establishes the sampling and analysis procedures, the quality control requirements and the incinerator's operating conditions under which the test will be conducted.

The surrogate trial burn plan requires the use of methods and procedures which will ensure that the data collected during the tests are valid and that will demonstrate the performance of the metal parts furnace.

Information from the trial burns will be used in establishing the conditions of the agent trial burns and following agent operation.

The condition requires an individual trial burn plan for surrogate operation of each incinerator as a permit modification. This plan meets that requirement.