Hermiston Herald
03/26/02 Page A-1

Army official may seek alternative to incineration

HERMISTON - An assistant secretary of the Army is expected to talk to the
governor about alternatives to incineration during a meeting in Salem later
this week.

Dr. Mario Fiori, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and
Environment, was scheduled to be in Hermiston today prior to heading to
Salem to speak with Gov. John Kitzhaber.

In December, the Department of the Army announced the major reorganization
which transferred oversight of the nation's chemical demilitarization
program from Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology over to Installations
and Environment, which is under Fiori. The decision to move the oversight of
chemical demilitarization was hailed as a welcome sign by those who support
using neutralization rather than incineration for mustard stored at
Umatilla. Mustard accounts for about 63 percent of the agent stored at
Umatilla.

Umatilla Chemical Depot public affairs officers would not confirm or deny
reports that Fiori had come to Hermiston to discuss alternative methods for
processing mustard agent stored at Umatilla, but Chris Dearth of Governor's
Natural Resource Office said yesterday that neutralization is one of the
things that will be discussed at a meeting with the governor in Salem
Thursday afternoon.

The state has concerns, Dearth said, about introducing other alternatives
when progress toward incineration is so far along. Other concerns, Dearth
said, were the amount of water that neutralization would require, the
secondary waste that neutralization would create, and the danger that
changing over could delay the schedules already established for
incineration. In addition, he said, they state is concerned about upsetting
a consensus that had been reached among entities, community leaders, and the
citizenry.

Since Sept. 11 the Army has explored options for getting rid of the chemical
weapons stockpile more quickly, Umatilla Chemical Depot Public Information
Officer Mary Binder said Monday. Unlike one or two other sites, Umatilla has
not been considering changing over to neutralization for all or part of the
weapons stored here.

"So far we have heard nothing other than to get the plant up and running,"
Binder said. Fiori would have to be the one to announce what issues he plans
to address in Hermiston, Binder said.

Initially, Fiori was scheduled to meet at Umatilla Chemical Depot, but the
today's meeting with local leaders was switched to PMCD Outreach Office.
Fiori was also scheduled to meet with the governor and representatives from
state agencies on Thursday.