By Karen Hutchinson-Talaski
Staff writer

HERMISTON — Incineration of chemical weapons at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is slated to begin this summer, providing the Environmental Quality Commission approves the process.

That’s the consensus of Umatilla Chemical Depot Commander Lt. Col. David Holliday, Washington Demilitarization Group Project general manager Doug Hamrick, and Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal site project manager Don Barclay, .

“We are ready,” Hamrick said. “I feel comfortable with starting (the incineration process) safely.”
Holliday echoed Hamrick’s sentiments.

“I am confident we are ready to start destruction,” Holliday said, “of our weapons of mass destruction. Safety is our biggest concern and we feel that it is safe to proceed.”

In a meeting on Monday, the three men outlined where they see the incineration process as it has progressed to eventual burn this summer.
“Safety and environmental compliance have always been core values,” Hamrick said. “We believe it and our employees believe this also.”

Hamrick says the major emphasis at the plant has been training to prepare workers for what will happen when chemical agent is eventually destroyed at the facility.

“We are doing processing as if actual agent is being destroyed,” Hamrick said. “That is our primary focus.”

Hamrick says he hopes to begin the metal parts surrogate trial burn by the end of this week, providing the Department of Environmental Quality signs off on a permit allowing the trial burn to begin.

There were 1200 specific criteria that needed to be met to be considered ready; only a small amount is left to complete the process. Hamrick is hopeful the criteria left will be checked off soon.
Barclay said 2004 will be a banner year for demilitarization plants. In addition to Umatilla, Newport, Ind. and Pine Bluff, Ark. are expected to begin operations this year. With the Anniston, Ala., Tooele, Utah and Aberdeen, Md. plants already in operation, having three more incineration plants operational will go a long way to completing the overall destruction process.

“We are committed to destroy the weapons at these plants,” Barclay said, “clean-up and move on.”

The incineration process is expected to take approximately six years, with another 30 - 36 months devoted to destruction of the incineration plant.

The Umatilla Chemical Depot stores about 11-12% of the original chemical stockpile of munitions in the United States. Over 3700 tons of chemical agent; which include GB Sarin gas, are stored in about 112 igloos on the depot.