LOCAL NEWS
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Group
ponders reuse options
By Hal McCune
of the East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Although
the Army’s mission won’t be complete for several more years, the Local Reuse
Authority already is tracking interest in Umatilla Chemical Depot property
by private companies and the National Guard.
The Local Reuse Authority (LRA) is the group charged with determining the
best uses for the 20,000 acres on the depot once the Army has destroyed all
the chemical weapons stored there.
It’s also the one entity appointed to deal with the Army on the closure and
reuse of the depot.
Created by Gov. Goldschmidt in the late 1980s, the LRA includes representatives
of Umatilla and Morrow counties, since the depot straddles both, as well
as representatives of the two port districts and the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
In its Tuesday meeting, the LRA reviewed continuing interest by a Tennessee-based
company, Kingsport Rail, in leasing the rail classification yard on the depot.
The company has had its eye on the depot for years, but progress on a lease
has been delayed by security concerns after the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks
of 2001 and staff changes in Army personnel who prepare and approve such
arrangements.
The portion of the depot Kingsport Rail is interested in is unused and available,
and a lease now could help fund the LRA, said Hermiston attorney George Anderson,
chairman of the group. Anderson noted that he worked on a proposed lease
agreement in 2003.
Army and depot officials at the meeting held at the Umatilla County Courthouse
said efforts to complete a lease should resume soon.
One stumbling block is the need to restore switches Union Pacific removed
connecting the rail lines on the depot to UP’s main line.
Todd Farmer of the Oregon Military Department told the LRA the National Guard
would like to use portions of the depot for training.
It’s interested in 1,750 acres that could include a small arms range for
up to 50-caliber machine guns, as well as a couple of igloos to store ammunition,
and barracks and cafeteria facilities for soldiers.
The National Guard also is negotiating with the Navy to use part of the Boardman
Bombing Range for training, said Morrow County Commissioner John Wenholz.
Farmer said the Guard wants to construct two “live-fire ranges” on the bombing
range, including one for M-1 tanks. The closest similar training sites for
the Guard are in Boise and Yakima.
But even with the bombing range sites, the Guard remains interested in the
depot, Farmer said, in part, as Wenholz noted, because there are no facilities
for soldiers at the range.
In other business, the LRA:
• Noted efforts to rid the depot of checkerboard land ownership was finally
successful thanks to a federal bill that transferred jurisdiction of more
than 8,000 acres of former Bureau of Land Management property to the Army.
When the Army built the depot, it condemned and purchased all the private
land within it. But the BLM land would have reverted back to the agency without
Senate Bill 2400, which was signed by the president.
The Army is expected to make a “no cost conveyance” of the depot land to
the LRA when the depot weapons are destroyed and closure and clean-up work
is complete. Incineration of all the chemical weapons is expected to be completed
by 2011, with closure and clean-up taking about three more years.
Umatilla Commissioner Bill Hansell recounted years of negotiations to try
to achieve what the bill accomplished. He and Anderson pointed to the “tremendous
help” of the Ferguson Group of Washington, D.C., which the county contracts
with. It “knew the process” and the players, Hansell said, and helped get
legislation prepared and presented.