LOCAL
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Opponents appeal to court to delay startup
By AMYJO BROWN
of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON — GASP, a local
group opposing the incineration of chemical weapons at the Umatilla Chemical
Depot, has filed an injunction in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland
in response to Friday’s decision by the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission
to give the Army permission to begin burning weapons.
The members of GASP hope to delay the Army’s plans in order to give
them time to convince a judge that an alternative method for destroying the
weapons should be implemented, said Karyn Jones, GASP founder.
“It would be much quicker in the long run,” Jones said.
Jones and 21 other local residents, in addition to the Sierra Club
and the Oregon Wildlife Federation, will present their case Monday.
The Army plans to begin moving part of its stockpile of weapons,
filled with more than 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister chemical agents,
to the incinerator Wednesday, according to Doug Hamrick, site manager for
the Washington Demilitarization Company, the contractor operating the plant
for the Army.
The state of Oregon approved the construction of the incinerator
in 1997. It was finished in 2001 and will cost the federal government around
$2.4 billion.
Jones said she doesn’t believe the incinerator can operate safely,
and that she wants the Army to use a process called neutralization, where
the liquid agent inside the weapons is destroyed using water instead of fire.
“It would not necessarily mean we’d have to completely start over,”
she said, adding that she believes the current facility could be retro-fitted
for the new design.
GASP’s lawsuit — called “GASP I” — alleges that the Army misled the
public on the original design of the incinerator, and that it has lied about
the amount of harmful emissions that will be emitted once it fires up. The
group has three other lawsuits filed.
“If we were to switch technologies, we could get through the weapons
quicker and safer,” she said. “And we’d be safer not just in a catastrophic
event, but in a day-to-day basis.”
GASP I has been pending in the Court of Appeals for five years. Oral
arguments on the case will be heard Friday. It could be months before the
judge makes a decision, said Stuart Sugarman, GASP attorney.
Sugarman said he believes he has a strong case to persuade the judge
to delay next week’s scheduled start of incineration until GASP I is resolved.
“We’re extremely confident,” Sugarman said. “If the judge is fair,
we can’t lose. There are just so many things so wrong with this facility
in so many ways.”