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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Walden opposes transfer of weapons to Depot

By ANDREW BINION of the East Oregonian
abinion@eastoregonian.com



U.S. Rep Greg Walden, R-Ore., right, jokes with Umatilla County Commissioners Bill Hansell, left, and Emile Holeman Tuesday before a town hall-style meeting with local officials and the public at the Outreach Office in Hermiston. Staff photo by E.J. Harris
HERMISTON — With its share being destroyed, the Umatilla Chemical Depot must not become the destruction site for anymore of the country’s chemical weapons, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said Tuesday.

“A deal is a deal,” Walden said. “The deal was the facility would be built, the weapons would be destroyed, and the facility destroyed.”

The Republican from Hood River toured the Depot on Tuesday afternoon and met with local officials and community members at the Umatilla Chemical Disposal Outreach Office as part of a three-day swing through northeast Oregon.

The U.S. Department of Defense indicated in January that it wanted to study transferring some chemical weapons from other sites across the country to Umatilla for incineration. Since then, Oregon’s congressional delegation and other officials have roundly criticized the plan and legislation has been introduced in Congress that would scuttle the study.

Despite a long process of hurdles the Defense Department would have to go through to move weapons across state lines, not the least authorization from Congress, Walden said officials must remain vigilant.

“First it’s an idea, next they go and do a study, the longer they go without opposition the better the chances of it becoming a reality,” Walden said, adding that he doesn’t want to see the Depot become “the Yucca Mountain of chemical weapons,” a reference to the nuclear waste storage site in Nevada.

Both the cities of Hermiston and Umatilla have sent official messages to the state’s top elected officials opposing any transfer of new weapons to the Depot.

Morrow County Commissioner Terry Tallman said Walden’s vocal opposition to the study plan was commendable.

“We shouldn’t be the repository for other people’s problems,” he said.

Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty said he appreciated the “due diligence” of Walden and other officials in pressuring the government to abandon the idea, but he doubts any new chemical weapons would be transferred to Umatilla County.

He called the likelihood of the transfer a “nonissue.”

About 12 percent of the United State’s supply, or 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister agent, is stored at Umatilla Chemical Depot in an array of weapons.

The incinerator at the Depot began operating last fall. The country’s stockpile is being destroyed to meet a 2012 deadline set by Congress and an international treaty.