LATEST NEWS
Sunday, September
05, 2004
Chemical Depot
continues testing
HERMISTON — Umatilla Chemical
Depot officials continue to test the heating and ventilation system of its
disposal facility and are hesitant to predict when destruction of chemical
weapons might begin.
“We’re going to test the filters until we are sure they are working
properly,” said Rick Kelley, spokesman for the Washington Demilitarization
Company, the contractor operating the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.
“We are dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s.”
The depot has completed all state and federal regulatory requirements
and has the necessary approval to begin burning the more than 7.4 million
pounds of chemical agent it stores in a variety of munitions. But in mid-August,
days before the depot was to start incineration operations, officials halted
the process to investigate why a trace amount of vapor from industrial chemicals
was found in the carbon filters of the system.
Samples of the chemicals were sent to a laboratory for testing and
the results raised more questions, Kelley said.
Depot employees are testing all the carbon filters within the ventilation
system of the disposal facility, and Kelley said he doesn’t know when the
task will be finished. The next update on when the depot might begin burning
rockets is expected Tuesday.