LOCAL
Saturday, August 14, 2004

Umatilla Depot incinerator ready to begin destroying chemical weapons

By AMYJO BROWN of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com



Depot Commander Lt. Col. David Holliday, Director of the Chemical Material Agency Mike Parker, U.S. Army Site Manager Don Barclay, Washington Demilitarization Co. Site Manager Doug Hamrick and U.S. Army Depot spokesperson Mary Binder listen intently as the Oregon Environmental Quality Commissions hears testimony on the depot’s readiness for incineration. Photo by E.J. Harris
HERMISTON — It was nearing 12:30 p.m. Friday and in those minutes before a meeting of the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission, held in Hermiston, Umatilla Chemical Depot Commander Lt. Col. David Holliday shook hands with as many people as he could, a wide smile on his face as he did so.

On the other side of the room depot site managers Don Barclay and Doug Hamrick also seemed pretty happy.

They all had plenty of reason to stay that way — at the end of the meeting the EQC voted to allow the officials to incinerate chemical weapons long stored at the depot. The decision by the panel of four Oregon residents was the last step needed before such activity at the depot could begin. Now, after more than 40 years of storage and more than a decade of anticipation of their destruction, weapons filled with 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister chemical agent will likely be burned, possibly starting as early as Wednesday.

“It’s a good day for the community and for Oregon,” Hamrick said. “This is the beginning of the end.”

The only obstacle left to the burn is a pending court decision Monday on a request for an injunction filed by GASP, a group opposing the idea of incineration. They have requested that activities at the plant be delayed until after a judge makes a decision on a lawsuit they filed in 1999, in which they ask the state to revoke the Army’s permit to incinerate the weapons. Oral arguments on the case are scheduled for Friday, but it could be months before a decision is handed down, according to Karyn Jones, founder of the group.

The depot has stored its stockpile of weapons, a variety of bombs, land mines and bulk containers filled with the deadly liquids, since 1961. Their destruction is part of a national program meant to wipe out the Army’s supply of chemical weapons stored at eight sites around the country, including the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Twenty years ago, Congress and the international community mandated their disposal.

When it starts, the depot will destroy first its M55 rockets filled with sarin, also known as GB. There are more than 90,000 of the rockets. Fifteen of them, stacked on a wooden pallet, will be moved Wednesday from their storage bunkers to the incinerator, Hamrick said.

 Thursday, most likely, depot workers will begin their processing — moving them with machinery to a specially built room able to withstand explosions and manually lifting one rocket at a time to a conveyor belt. From there, operators in a control room will push the buttons moving the rocket on the conveyor belt toward a machine that will drain its chemical agent, then chop it into pieces before dropping the pieces down a chute to a furnace.

Before their vote on Friday, the EQC members spent an hour and a half hearing updates on the depot’s preparedness to begin the process. Sue Oliver and Dennis Murphey, local Department of Environmental Quality Commission regulators, testified that they believed the site was ready and able to comply with Oregon’s environmental laws.

“All outstanding issues have been resolved,” said Murphey, DEQ’s chemical demilitarization administrator. “The department overall has been satisfied with the facility’s response. We don’t see any indicators that they would be unwilling or unable to comply.”

The EQC members responded with their own confidence in the project, each voting “aye” on whether or not to approve the start of the weapons’ incineration, after EQC member Deirdre Malarkey made the motion.

EQC Vice Chair Lynn Hampton, before seconding the motion and casting her support, said, “I’m the resident. I don’t live in the immediate response zone, but I live in Pendleton. I’ve been hearing the local voices, which are saying, ‘Please destroy the chemical weapons, please get them out of my backyard and please do it wisely.’ I’m ready to vote.”

Immediately after the motion carried, the audience in the conference room at Good Shepherd Hospital, where the meeting was held, exploded into enthusiastic clapping, with several shouts of “Yay!”

Former Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider punched his fist in the air to celebrate.

The atmosphere will be more subdued at the depot the day rockets arrive at the incinerator, said Depot Commander Holliday.

“They’ll be no champagne, no jumping up and down,” he said. “Strangely enough, it’ll be anti-climatic. It’ll be like any other delivery to the plant.”

Still, his pleasure in Friday’s decision was hard to hide.

“We’re very, very pleased,” he admitted.

Holliday, who is half-way through his two-year term overseeing operations at the depot, said he had mixed feelings about being the guy in charge at this moment.

“I’m glad I’m the first (commander) to start agent operations, but I also want to stay and see it through,” he said.

Holliday lives on the depot with his wife, Myra, and 8-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Although the weapons are literally in their backyard, they weren’t at the EQC meeting, choosing instead to visit the Umatilla County Fair, Holliday said.

“They have a lot of confidence in what I do and in me,” he said.

Malarkey, the EQC member who made the motion enabling Holliday to do his work, said she, too, feels confident in him.

“Not being a scientist or a technician, I have to rely on the knowledge of the (depot officials),” she said, although adding, “there are a lot of things to worry about, and I just hope the decision we made is a good one.”