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Sunday, September 04, 2005

Depot represents tremendous potential for development

By HAL McCUNE of the East Oregonian
hmccune@eastoregonian.com


HERMISTON — From mushrooms and hog farming to warehousing and distribution centers. From storage and office space to National Guard housing.

All those ideas and more have come up over the years when the topic turned to uses for the Umatilla Chemical Depot once the Army leaves.

One thing people agree on, the depot represents tremendous potential for economic development, especially the east end where the current command complex operates and freeway access is ideal.

“Members of the reuse authority are in strong agreement about developing along Interstate 82 and 84, particularly at Westland interchange,” said Kim Puzey, Port of Umatilla director. “It also gives us an opportunity to more fully develop Powerline Road and the I-82 interchange.”

Morrow County Commissioner John Wenholz thinks the two freeways make the depot land a natural as a transportation hub.

“It’s ideal for a distribution center,” he said.

There’s also “a lot of track out there on the depot,” Wenholz said, although Union Pacific has removed the switch that connected it with the main line. “Some of those warehouses aren’t that old,” he added, and rail access makes then more attractive.

Joe Pitzer worked at the depot for 33 years and retired as chief of supply. He agreed there are some warehouses there that might work for a distribution center served by both rail and truck.

As for the 1,001 storage igloos on the depot, he said other communities have struggled to find uses for them.

“I’ve heard of everything from growing mushrooms to raising hogs.”

Marie Baldo, commander of the depot from 1995-97 and now Hermiston’s library director, said the igloos would provide “wonderful storage.” They are dry and maintain a mild temperature. But they have no electricity, she added.

There are plenty of pluses on the depot, like roads, infrastructure and some useable buildings, but it also will present challenges as public uses are sought for the land, Baldo said.

“You always have to be suspicious of a gift horse, and this one has some bad teeth,” Baldo said.

She noted that when the depot was added to the BRAC list, all maintenance stopped on the unused buildings, some of which were undergoing significant asbestos abatement programs.

Puzey agreed that the warehouses on the depot “run the gambit — there are some that would entail significantly more cost to clean and retrofit than just remove. But there are some others that for the appropriate purpose could be ideal.”

Winholtz thinks the National Guard might be interested in using the barracks on the depot to house soldiers. The Guard is working on an agreement to use land off Bombing Range Road for tank maneuvers, he said, rather than send them to Boise for training, and that could create the need.

Chuck Norris, who was depot commander from 1969-71 and also served the area 10 years as a state legislator before moving to Florida not long ago, thinks it’s unlikely the depot area would be practical for housing, both because of the terrain and “I’m not sure the wells could support domestic consumption.”

Water would also be an issue for using depot land for agriculture, said Pitzer, although there’s certainly room for it.

Hugh Johnson, Umatilla County’s economic development director, said its location and infrastructure make the depot a possibility for heavy industrial uses.

“Today’s businesses work on pretty short strings; they need ground that is shovel ready,” he said, which makes the depot’s existing network of roads, electricity and natural gas attractive.

Former Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider thinks it makes sense to keep the chemical weapons incinerator and retrofit it to burn garbage, but there’s little chance of that happening. The Army’s operating permit requires that the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility be torn down when incineration is complete.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from development, military bases can be ideal places for preserving the environment, Baldo said, because there are large stretches of land basically the way nature left it.

The Umatilla Depot is renowned for its antelope herd, and some have suggested creating a preserve.

In a recent Web poll conducted by the East Oregonian, 58 percent of the 71 respondents favored using the depot for industrial development, but the next largest group, 15 percent, liked the idea of an antelope hunting preserve.

The possibilities are endless, local developers seem to agree, despite the obstacles.

“I know they’re going to come up with some great uses, once people put their mind to it,” Baldo said.