This aerial
photo taken July 21 shows the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, which
could begin incinerating chemical weapons at the Umatilla Chemical Depot
next month. Staff photo by Don Cresswell
HERMISTON--As the August
date nears for the start of incineration of weapons stored at the Umatilla
Chemical Depot, eight international inspectors will arrive soon in Hermiston
where they will live and work, in shifts, until all the depot's storage of
chemical agent is destroyed.
"They are here to witness and verify that we are doing what we say
we are doing," said Mary Binder, spokesperson for the U.S. Army at the depot.
In the process--which could last up to seven years--they will be
kept under tight security. Military personnel will escort them not only on
site at the depot, but also around town. Requests for interviews cannot be
granted, according to Binder.
"While they live in the local area, they keep a low profile in the
community in order to focus on their duties at the destruction facility,"
she said. "They need to be available around the clock to witness the destruction
of the chemical weapons."
The inspectors are employed by the Organisation for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body in charge of enforcing the Chemical
Weapons Convention--which was ratified by the U.S. in 1997 and is one of
the primary reasons the depot must destroy its stockpile. The agreement among
the signers of the Convention, which includes 163 other countries along with
the U.S., is to prohibit the development, production, acquisition, stockpile
or use of chemical weapons.
Approximately 59 inspectors are stationed in 13 sites around the
world, where they keep watch over the world's known stockpiles of weapons
of mass destruction. As of mid-July, the inspectors verified that 12 percent
of the stockpiles and eight million munitions, containers and other items
that once contained chemical warfare had been destroyed, much of it in the
United States.
There are eight locations around the country where the U.S. has stored
chemical weapons, produced in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to the depot
in Oregon, other storage sites are in Utah, Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky,
Indiana, Arkansas, and Colorado.
One other site, an island in the South Pacific Ocean, destroyed its
supply in 2000. The Utah, Alabama and Maryland sites are in the process of
destroying their stockpiles.
The depot near Hermiston is scheduled to begin its disposal process
in August, if the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality approves the
start of operations at its special meeting in Hermiston Aug. 13. The site
in Indiana is also scheduled to begin its disposal process this summer, while
the other sites are in various phases of construction.
According to the terms of the treaty, all the weapons must be destroyed
by the end of 2007. It is unlikely the U.S. will meet that deadline, however,
said Laura Monaco, treaty coordinator for the Washington Demilitarization
Company (WDC), the contractor employed by the Army to operate the depot's
disposal facility.
"We're way ahead of other countries and still within the limits of
the Convention," Monaco said. "But we probably won't make that date. We will
likely request a five-year extension."
In fact, an April report by the Government Accountability Office,
an independent agency employed by Congress to study government programs and
spending, stated that each of the U.S. chemical weapons storage sites had
fallen behind its original schedule, and that it was doubtful that even a
five-year extension, to 2012, would be met.
"The delays stem from ongoing incidents during operations, environmental
permitting issues, concerns about emergency preparedness and unfunded requirements,"
the GAO reported.
The Army's chemical demilitarization program had destroyed about
27.6 percent of the nation's stockpile as of March, about half the amount
the international treaty called for being destroyed by that time. Meanwhile,
the cost of the program, now at $25 billion ($2.4 billion for the Umatilla
Chemical depot), was expected to continue increasing, the GAO report said.
The depot itself is behind its original schedule, with this year
being its originally scheduled completion date. In past reports to the state,
officials have said they are optimistic about receiving approval from the
EQC this August and meeting the extended deadline for completion of the project.
Don Barclay, the Army's site manager, and Doug Hamrick, the WDC site
manager, both have said the destruction process will go slow the first three
months, and will continue at whatever pace is safest for the workers and
the communities surrounding the depot.
As part of a checks system for the international community, OPCW
inspectors will be present, keeping track of exactly how much of the chemical
agent is being destroyed when.
"They are here to help prove to the world that we are destroying
the chemical weapons," Monaco said. "They have the right to be here 24/7
the minute we start."
The inspectors have been in Hermiston before. For the past seven
years, they have come at least annually to inventory the more than 7.4 million
pounds of nerve and blister agent the Army has stored in a variety of munitions.
But now, with the start of the stockpile�s disposal process, they will remain
on-site to verify that the process.
The inspectors will randomly select rockets, for instance, and test
them to see if they actually contain chemical agent, according to Monaco.
They will also take note of the facility's waste production levels, to ensure
that they meet requirements set by the treaty.
That will not put them in conflict or in allegiance with Oregon's
state inspectors, however.
"They're pretty much on their own," said Shelly Ingram, spokesperson
for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the state agency with
independent oversight of the chemical demilitarization program. "They're
doing what they're doing, and we're doing what we're doing. The contact with
them is real restrictive."
The foreign inspectors will file reports with the OPCW in the Hague,
Netherlands. If they report any concerns, those will be discussed between
treaty commanders and higher-ranking personnel in the Army.
On the depot, the inspectors will have their own offices and a portion
of the depot's laboratory for their use, Monaco said. The inspectors chosen
to reside locally can be from any of the 164 countries participating in the
international treaty. Most are chemists and many have military backgrounds
in their own countries' munitions programs, Monaco said.
The inspectors will rotate. Each member will stay three to six weeks
at a time. Housing will be provided somewhere in Hermiston, or maybe Umatilla,
Monaco said.
