LOCAL
Friday,
April 16, 2004
Depot tests reveal
issues need attention
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — Ten days of
stringent testing at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility show there
is much work to be done before incineration startup in July, depot officials
reported Thursday.
The integrated operations testing, which had all systems running
at once under normal and emergency conditions, revealed 70 issues that must
be resolved before chemical agents stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot
can be destroyed, said Douglas Hamrick, project general manager.
“It was a pretty grueling 10-day period,” he told the Chemical Demilitarization
Citizens Advisory Commission at its monthly meeting. “We examined more than
1,200 criteria that we had to meet, and we had 70 findings that we still
have to close.”
While depot officials were optimistic about meeting the July deadline,
Dennis Murphey, administrator of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s
Chemical Demilitarization Program, said a significant amount of work that
must be completed before incineration can begin.
“It’s to be expected that there will be some issues, but 70 is a
lot of work still to be resolved,” Murphey said, adding that the issues were
all critical and may involve retraining of staff or extensive paperwork.
DEQ personnel were on site during the entire 10 days to watch how
depot officials responded to problems they saw.
Despite the daunting task ahead of them, Murphey said it was encouraging
that depot officials seemed to recognize where problems were and that they
acted properly in reporting the problems.
The 10-day testing period was conducted for in-house approval of
incineration startup. The DEQ and the U.S. Army must still evaluate the facility.
Then the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission must also approve incineration
startup.
Murphey said the EQC will be in Hermiston May 20 and 21 and will
conduct a public hearing on the issue before possibly making its decision
in mid-July.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, Lt. Col. David Holliday, depot commander,
reported that a leaking 155mm projectile stored in one of the K-block igloos
was still unidentified.
“We have not located the leak yet,” he said. “We’re in the process
of trying to isolate the munition.”