REQUEST FOR DEPOT LAND CAUSES STIR

Published: March 24, 2006

By Karen Hutchinson-Talaski
Staff writer

HERMISTON — Much ado about nothing.

That is the consensus after a letter received from the Department of the Army to the Umatilla Army Depot Reuse Authority (LRA) saying the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation wanted the Umatilla Chemical Depot land to be given to them after the chemical weapon mission is completed.

The tribes want the property for wildlife preservation and economic development. The tribes say the letter was a misunderstanding.

According to Carl Scheeler, CTUIR Department of Natural Resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has told the tribes their funding "agreements do not support the acquisition of property for wildlife preservation or for economic development."

"The request was not supported by the BIA," Scheeler said. He characterized the request as informal.

The tribes submitted their request in a letter of interest in acquiring the UMCD. A timeline passed out at the Re-use Authority meeting on Wednesday showed the tribes were afraid they would lose any right to participate in the Base Relocation and Closure (BRAC) process.

The timeline suggests that at the time, the tribes recognized that nothing could be done without the participation of the LRA members.

"Without the support of the LRA," said Antone Minthorn, CTUIR chair, "the tribes would not be successful. We took the initial steps to bring up the option and were told by BIA it wasn't on the table."

LRA member and Umatilla County Commissioner Bill Hansell says he was upset that the process was started without being notified.

"Where in the world did this come from?" Hansell said of his initial response to the news.

Morrow County Commissioner John Wenholz agreed, saying that the reuse authority was working toward the common good of the entire community.

"We kind of got back-doored on this," Wenholz said while acknowledging that the LRA could work through the problem.

A letter was drafted by LRA Chair George Anderson to the Department of the Army reiterating the LRA's stance that the UMCD be given to the LRA "to be used and/or distributed as might be agreed upon by the members of the authority for the common good of all its members and those they represent."

The 12-member LRA was formed about 20 years ago and includes commissioners from Morrow and Umatilla counties, both counties' ports, the tribes, the military and local citizens. The group is working to determine what will happen with the depot land and buildings once the mission is completed. Once the chemical weapons are destroyed, the incinerator and other secondary waste materials will also be destroyed. It could take until 2013 or 2014 for everything to be destroyed