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Friday, May 13, 2005

Burning stopped at Depot

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.