LOCAL
Friday, June 25, 2004
DEQ, Army push
pace to avoid delays
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — Army and state
officials are working feverishly to complete tests of a treatment system
for liquid hazardous waste created during incineration of weapons at the
Umatilla Chemical Depot. It must be done by mid July to avoid delaying again
the start of incineration.
The DEQ will relax no standards in the rush for certification, said
Dennis Murphey, program administrator for the Department of Environmental
Quality’s chemical demilitarization program. But it is doing all it can otherwise
to help make the deadline, such as committing extra staff who may work round-the-clock
for several days next week.
“Challenging, yes. Do we still intend to do everything possible to
make it happen? You bet,” said Dennis Murphey, program administrator for
the DEQ’s chemical demilitarization program.
DEQ must have everything in order by July 16 to prepare its report
to the Environmental Quality Commission, which will decide in mid August
whether to give the green light to begin incineration.
“We’re working hard with the site to help get the results to us in
a time period that supports the Aug. 13 EQC date,” Murphey said.
If the EQC gives its “OK” then, incineration could begin immediately.
At issue is the Brine Reduction Area (BRA), a treatment system for
chemical agent-contaminated waste produced by the incinerators at the Umatilla
Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. The BRA reduces liquid byproducts from
the furnaces to a salt-like substance that is then shipped to a hazardous
waste site in Washington.
The system is a unique requirement for the Army’s chemical demilitarization
program, which operates seven other weapons disposal facilities in the U.S.
Typically, at its other sites, it sends its liquid brine to wastewater treatment
plants. Oregon, however, prefers to reduce the amount of liquid wastes traveling
on the highways and made it a requirement for the Army to treat its waste
as much as possible on site.
“In our case, it’s a philosophy issue,” said Sue Oliver, a senior
hazardous waste specialist for DEQ. “If you’re concerned about spills on
the highway, you’re much more concerned about liquids than salts — although
the reality is that they’re both relatively benign. There are hundreds of
things much more hazardous on the highways.”
The BRA is a challenging system to operate, according to Murphey.
Only one has been used successfully in the demilitarization program, on Johnston
Atoll Island. Another at Tooele in Utah was tested only for a short time
before problems shut it down. The BRA is also a costly system to operate
and labor intensive.
For years, the Army and the DEQ went back and forth on whether it
was necessary at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Doubts about whether the Army
intended to use the system arose during testing procedures more than a year
and a half ago, according to Oliver. Instead of treating the waste from the
trial burns, which were agent-free, on site, the Army shipped the waste to
a different facility.
While the permit technically allowed that, DEQ made its expectations
clearer in a modification to the permit requiring the BRA to be operational
prior to the start of agent operations. Few exceptions, such as an unforeseen
mechanical failure in the BRA, would allow liquid brine to be shipped off
site once incineration begins.
Depot officials always intended to comply with the state’s wishes
to keep contaminated materials on site, according to spokespeople from both
the Army and the Washington Demilitarization Company, the contractor operating
the disposal facility.
“I know that people are wondering if we’re going to use it, and
we are,” said Rick Kelley, spokesperson for the WDC. “All along we’ve intended
to build it and operate it.”
“The commitment here has been to use the BRA,” said Mary Binder,
spokesperson for the Army at the depot. “The DEQ along with other groups
have been very adamant that they want the BRA used and do not want liquid
shipped off site.”
Still, further clarification of the rules seemed necessary just several
months ago. On March 30, the DEQ sent a letter to depot officials outlining
exactly how it expected the brine to be managed.
According to Murphey, there was a difference in opinion about whether
the BRA needed to be tested before permission could be given to start incineration.
The letter indicated the tests were key to approval.
“We wanted to make sure that there was no misunderstanding on the
part of the site that we did regard the completion of the performance tests
and their preliminary results as necessary to the start of agent operations,”
Murphey said. “We wanted to make sure there was no confusion.”
In response, depot site managers Don Barclay and Doug Hamrick, along
with depot commander Lt. Col. David Holliday, signed a letter saying they
were working diligently toward having the BRA operational, but that they
did not believe it was necessary for start up.
“The Permittees do not believe that it is in the best interest of
the public to delay agent operations if the PT (performance tests) are not
completed or the results are not available prior to the decision by the Environmental
Quality Commission to approve the start of agent operations,” they wrote.
“The public risk of continued agent munition storage would continue to be
extended, even though the capability to reduce brine to salt would exist.”
The DEQ held firm, and only recently, according to Murphey, was everything
finalized. The site managers at the depot are now on an accelerated schedule
to complete all necessary testing for the BRA. Preliminary tests are done,
and two permit modifications regarding the system were submitted to DEQ this
week. Once those are approved, further testing will need to be done.
“There is no specific time frame that you can specify for how long
that will take,” Murphey said, adding that the schedule depends on how the
system and the people perform during the tests and whether additional tests
become necessary.