LOCAL
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Depot preparation
continues despite power outage
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — Electrical
problems the last few days at the Umatilla Chemical Depot are not interfering
with preparations for the start of incineration and will be fixed soon, depot
commander Lt. Col. David Holliday told the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness
Program Governing Board Wednesday.
The power outages have affected the administrative area of the depot,
leaving some employees working in the dark. The emergency response operations
center, which feeds constant data about weather patterns to the Hermiston
safety center, also lost power.
Operations at the disposal facility, however, have not lost electricity
and preparations for startup are continuing, said Don Barclay, depot site
project manager.
“The plant is fed electricity separately from the rest of the depot,”
Barclay said. “The critical activities are still operational.”
The electricity problems are more of an inconvenience than a serious
issue right now, Holliday said. But if they happen after incineration operations
begin at the depot he said he would shut down the disposal facility along
with the rest of the depot until the problems are fixed.
The depot is scheduled to begin destroying more than 7.4 million
pounds of nerve and blister agent this summer.
Electrical feeds come into the depot from three sources — the Port
of Morrow, McNary Dam and the Umatilla Electric Cooperative. According to
Holliday, an increase in activity at the depot combined with hot weather
overloaded the system — both the main electrical feeds and the backup generators.
“It’s caused me to shut down depot operations in the administrative
area,” Holliday said. “We’re taking a look at the electrical flow. We think
we have a feeling where it might be originating.”
Holliday said engineers from Umatilla Electric Cooperative are helping
with the problem, and he expects it to be resolved soon.
“We are extremely busy right now, but we think we’ll be able to get
there,” he said of the mid-July readiness deadline.