LATEST NEWS
Friday, May 13, 2005
Law passed banning
move of additional weapons
By HAL MCCUNE of
the East Oregonian
hmccune@eastoregonian.com
UMATILLA — Anyone still
worried about the U.S. Department of Defense moving more chemical weapons
to the Umatilla Chemical Depot, relax — for good, says U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
of Oregon.
Legislation to prevent such a move, championed by Wyden and supported
by other Northwest members of Congress, was recently signed into law.
“The Defense Department will no longer be able to even consider moving
dangerous chemical weapons materials across state lines into our local communities,”
Wyden said Thursday. “Instead of greatly multiplying the risks to the people
of Eastern Oregon, DOD can now focus exclusively on securing and permanently
cleaning up the chemical risks that are currently in place.”
Wyden joined with U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar,
D-Colo., in sponsoring the legislation earlier this year that prohibits the
Defense Department from funding any study on the feasibility of transporting
the chemical munitions at the Pueblo, Colo., Chemical Depot to unnamed out-of-state
sites for destruction.
The provision was included as part of the 2005 Emergency Supplemental
funding bill approved by Congress and signed by the president this week.
One possible incinerator site for transported chemical weapons materials
was the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
The Defense Department conducted three studies over the last 20 years
on transporting chemical weapons across state lines to save money by using
incinerators already built and operating rather than building more.
Those studies concluded it wasn’t practical, Wyden said.
In January, the department announced plans for a similar three-month
study at a cost of $150,000 but dropped those in April after considerable
negative reaction to the plan.
Both the Hermiston and Umatilla city councils passed resolutions
against transporting chemical weapons across state borders to the Depot,
which began burning its supply in September.
The depot stores about 12 percent of the nation’s supply of chemical
weapons. It has been storing more than 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister
agents since the 1960s. Those chemical weapons must be destroyed as part
of an international agreement by 2012.
Wyden has focused on safety at the Umatilla Chemical Depot over the
years, his office noted.
In 1999, he released a Government Accountability Office study that
found that an emergency preparedness program at the facility lacked sufficient
management. He then worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and
Army representatives to properly fund and manage safety programs.
In 2003, Wyden worked with U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to secure $4.1 million for the Umatilla Chemical
Stockpile Emergency Preparation Program to boost safety projects in and around
the Umatilla Chemical Depot.