Hermiston Herald
04/23/02

Meeting attendees feel area prepared for emergency

HERMISTON - The off-post areas around Umatilla Chemical Depot have an
adequate emergency response program in place and fully operational for
protecting the population, most folks told the Citizens Advisory Commission.

The commission heard community responses to the question at Thursday's
monthly meeting.

Also at the meeting, UMCD Site Manager Don Barclay, State CSEPP Manager
Chris Brown, and DEQ Administrator Wayne Thomas presented updates of their
functions, according to Chairman Bob Flournoy.

"The consensus was clearly to get on with the incineration program" Flournoy
said. "Most attendees indicated their satisfaction with the CSEPP efforts to
assure personal safety, and comment was also made regarding comfort with the
Army side of the coin."

Susan and Karyn Jones, who are associated with GASP, the organization suing
the Army and the state of Oregon over the facility's permits, communicated
their dissatisfaction with incineration, however, as did J.R. Wilkinson of
Hermiston.

"Many of the relative shortcomings are well known, and intelligent effort is
being made to overcome them," Flournoy claimed.

The personal safety preparations seemed to be accepted, according to
Flournoy, but one concern detailed such items as no protection for live
stock, crops, and fish.

"These have always been considered but in reality they are going to take a
back seat, as there are no feasible ways to protect some million acres of
farms, many thousands of heads of live stock and miles of rivers and the
fish populations therein, as well as family pets," said Flournoy. "Just
providing for the safety of human beings is proving to be a monumental
task."

Due to the relatively small size and limited path of the plume, farm losses
in the event of an off-post incident would be "very small indeed" compared
with the total the acreage and live stock in Umatilla and Morrow Counties,
Flournoy says, but the farmer whose stock and crops are affected may not
see it that way. Flournoy says he thinks that the Army and Congress are
prepared to accept associated compensation as a minor part of the total
risk.