Hermiston Herald
January 3, 2003,

CSEPP increasing safety at Head Start

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

HERMISTON - Oregon CSEPP is pioneering a new concept in keeping children
safe in the event of a chemical emergency.

Eight Mobile Shelter Units are being installed at county- and
state-sponsored Head Start facilities and two additional shelters are in
final stages of construction, to be used at Morrow Education Center in
Irrigon.

Each unit is a 14-by-66-foot modular building, modified to include a
specialized carbon air filtration system. City codes prevent most of them
from being used day to day for additional classroom space but they provide
a safe place for Head Start and other students in the event a chemical
emergency at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, or any similar chemical event.

The units are in addition to the over pressurization systems that have
already been installed in 14 schools, Good Samaritan Center, the Hermiston
Safety Center, the Irrigon fire station and Good Shepherd Hospital. Good
Shepherd's over pressurized area is said to be chemical demilitarization's
largest over pressurization project in the nation, and to have cost $1.8
million in CSEPP funds to accomplish.

Four mobile shelters, connected with a hallway, are placed behind Oregon
Child Development Council in Hermiston, the largest head start. Units are
also in place at Hermiston Head Start on Fourth Street, Simplot Center Head
Start, Pine Tree Center Head Start in Umatilla, and Umatilla Center/WIC Head
Start in Umatilla.

Finished-work on the buildings Morrow Education Center's two Irrigon
shelters is expected to be completed in about two weeks, Apollo Sheet
Metal's Jim Morgan told The Hermiston Herald on Tuesday. The location for
the is still being discussed with the city.

Having enough room for 40 adults or up to 50 children and infants, each
mobile shelter unit comes equipped with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a
$9,000 ramp for wheel chairs. The carbon filters can move 200 cubic feet of
air per minute. Each has its own a 40 KW backup diesel fired generator for
backup, a recirculating Carrier five-ton heat pump, a tone alert radio, and
an operators manual. The heavy, metal doors have key-pad type locks.

All of the units were built by Modern Building Systems in Aumsville Ore. and
equipped with over pressurization units by Apollo Sheet Metal of Kennewick.

Every shelter costs about $140,000 and the price includes construction,
equipment, and installation. Under contract, Apollo also provides training
for day care staff and performs monthly inspections to ensure that the
integrity of the system is maintained.

Should a day care facility ever move, the units are 100 percent portable -
they can be moved to the new location. When chemical demilitarization is
complete, the equipment will be turned over to the respective counties.

According to CSEPP PIO Cheryl Humphrey, the mobile shelters here are a model
for other sites across the nation with chemical demilitarization projects.

The specialized filtration units create an indoors air pressure that is
greater than the air pressure outdoors, so if there is any leak, the air
will lead from the inside to the outside and not the other way around.

According to Mobile Shelter Unit Logistics Officer Bill Howard, in a
chemical emergency, children would be very safe inside the mobile unit - far
safer than outdoors where there might be the possibility of exposure to
dangerous chemicals.