LATEST NEWS
Friday, June 10, 2005
Chemical weapons
incineration resumes at Depot
By
HAL McCUNE of the East Oregonian
hmccune@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — The Umatilla
Chemical Agent Disposal Facility processed 251 rockets Thursday during it’s
first day of operation after a three-week shutdown to investigate a series
of rocket fires.
Processing resumed at 1:45 p.m., said Adam Russell of the Washington
Group protocol office, following receipt of a letter from the Department
of Environmental Quality authorizing the restart. Washington Group operates
the disposal facility for the Army.
“Everything went pretty smoothly,” Russell said.
The rocket fires — three over six weeks — involved inadvertent ignition
of propellant remaining in the rockets as they were being cut up for incineration,
resulting in a low-order explosion and fire. DEQ issued a stop-work order
after the last fire May 18. All the fires occurred in the Explosive Containment
Room, so no workers were in danger and there was no threat of a chemical
agent release.
Russell said engineers did make an additional modification Thursday
when it was determined too much water was being sprayed into the deactivation
furnace. That issue was expected to be resolved today so rocket processing
could continue.
When processing started Thursday, one rocket at a time was moved
through the Explosive Containment Room to ensure all systems were working
properly, Russell said.
Eventually, two rockets were moved through at one time — one being
punched and drained of sarin agent while a drained rocket was cut into pieces
— so the operation was operating a full production.
A rocket task force organized by the Army to investigate the rocket
fires at the Umatilla Chemical Depot and Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility in Arkansas has been unable so far to definitively determine the
cause of the fires.