HERMISTON -- The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued the Washington Demilitarization Company penalties totaling $54,600 for various hazardous waste permit violations.

The company, which operates the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Hermiston along with the U.S. Army, has until Jan. 24 to appeal the penalty.

The violations were disclosed in an April 18, 2006 quarterly self-reported noncompliance report, which Washington Demilitarization submitted to DEQ. The report identified a number of violations of the company's hazardous waste permit for operating the Umatilla disposal facility, which incinerates stockpiled chemical weapons from the Army-owned Umatilla Chemical Depot. In addition, DEQ found two other permit violations after an April 27, 2006 inspection and document review at the Hermiston facility.

The DEQ assessed penalties for the following permit violations:

• Failing to monitor the facility's laboratory Heating Ventilation and Cooling (HVC) filter unit. Because of a systems failure after a line wasn't reconnected following system repairs, the lab HVC filter was operating but not monitored for a total of 33 days, between April 25 through June 8, 2006. Penalty: $27,600.

• Failing to correctly monitor a liquid incinerator on at least three days between Feb. 18 and March 9, 2006. Operators fed hazardous waste into an incinerator with flue gas rates improperly calculated. Penalty: $13,800.

• Failing to provide alternative monitoring of ventilation exhaust in the laboratory HVC emissions stack by bringing one monitoring system off line at the same time another system was not operating, resulting in no monitoring of exhaust for nearly 14 hours on April 25, 2006. Penalty: $4,600.

• Failing to monitor the facility's Enhanced On-Site Container 192, in the Container Handling Building. Penalty: $4,200.

• For nearly a year, failing to inspect four primary sumps as part of weekly inspections, between April 17, 2005 and Feb. 19, 2006. Penalty: $2,400.

• Failing to keep two 55-gallon containers of hazardous waste closed in the Brine Reduction Area, when waste was not being added or removed. Penalty: $2,000.

While DEQ does not believe that any wastes or chemical agents were released because of or during these violations, and does not believe that any workers or others were exposed, these measures are necessary to protect public health and safety.

In assessing the penalty, DEQ noted that many of the violations discovered during its 2006 inspection and recorded in the quarterly report are repeat violations that originally occurred during the past three years.