LOCAL 

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

New air filters to increase protection level

By JEANNINE KORANDA of the East Oregonian
jkoranda@eastoregonian.com


Umatilla County residents closest to the Umatilla Chemical Depot might soon be getting recirculating air filters, which will allow them to shelter in place about 30 minutes more.

Tuesday, members from Umatilla County Emergency Management presented a proposal to distribute about 1,420 of the filters to an area that reaches from the northwest Umatilla County border to Interstate 84. The area encompass the city of Umatilla.

Distributing the air filters does not mean the current shelter-in-place plan is not adequate, officials stressed.

“We’re just making the safe safer,” said Meg Capps, Umatilla County emergency manger.

“We are enhancing the shelter in place program,” said Ray Denny, planner with Umatilla County Emergency Management.

The shelter in place program still offers adequate protection for residents, he said. The filters would be additional protection for those most likely to be affected quickly and the longest by an accident at the depot.

After the initial phase, which will focus on houses in the immediate area, the plan is to distribute the filters to special population residences and facilities within the Immediate Response Zone and the Protective Action Zone. Those could include foster homes, home day care facilities and adult care facilities.

The advantage to distributing the filters to such facilities is there are more people concentrated in one area, Denny said.

Bill Howard, the Chemical Emergency Stockpile Preparedness Program logistics officer for Umatilla County, estimated there were between 50 and 100 such places in the county.

Distribution in both phases will be handed by the Umatilla and Hermiston fire districts.

Morrow County already has a similar program to distribute recirculating air filters to its residents. So far the program has distributed 868 air filters in the Irrigon area.

“They are still going door to door to pick up people who may have been missed,” Howard said. The number of air filters distributed in Morrow County equals about two thirds the number of tone alert radios in the area.

Cheryl Seigel, Umatilla County CSEPP public information officer, said that Morrow County was chosen for the pilot program in part because Irrigon was much closer to the depot than population centers in Umatilla County. Additionally, prevailing weather patterns mean that a chemical plume would likely head toward Irrigon.

Hermiston was not include in Umatilla County’s distribution plan because it is farther from the risks, she said. Also, if shelter in place would not work, with the infrastructure improvements under way in the city, people could be moved out of the area quickly.

The portable air filters are manufactured by Honeywell and cost about $300 apiece, Capps said. Funding for the program will come from CSEPP.

The filters, which can be used every day, proved to be the most effective at removing chemical agent simulates in tests by the U.S. Army. The filter includes and exterior carbon fabric and two filters.

The Umatilla County Commissioners will likely vote on the project next week. Seigel said that beginning in June, CSEPP would begin talking to other elected officials, such as at the West End Mayor’s Meeting.

Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty, who attended the presentation, said he would support the project.

The proposal estimated that the initial distribution of the filters would begin in October and the second phase, pending funding, would begin in November.