LOCAL
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Incinerator start
delay assured
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — A mid-July
startup of incineration at the Umatilla Chemical Depot is no longer possible.
The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission will meet in August in
Hermiston to make its decision on the startup, the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality announced today.
That approval is necessary before destruction of the 7.4 million
pounds of chemical agent stored at the depot can begin.
The EQC was originally scheduled to decide on the issue in mid-July
at a meeting in Portland, but in order to prepare for the meeting the DEQ
needed all readiness reports from the U.S. Army and the incinerator’s contractor,
the Washington Demilitarization Company, before June 24.
The site couldn’t meet that date, said Don Barclay, site project
manager for WDC.
Still to be prepared are testing and reports on the site’s handling
of hazardous waste and its response to the Centers of Disease Control’s recommendation
that it put a response plan in place for monitor detections of chemical agent
below alarm levels.
The Umatilla Chemical Depot must destroy the 7.4 million pounds of
nerve and blister chemical agents to meet a congressional mandate and international
treaty.
The EQC is the final approval needed before incineration of the weapons
can begin. If it gives its okay at the August meeting, incineration could
begin as soon as Aug. 14, according to Mary Binder, spokesperson for the
Army.