ARMY SEEKS TO PUSH BACK DEADLINE FOR AGENT DISPOSAL

Published: May 12, 2006

"All the schedules have been extremely optimistic. There is a lot more predictability, a lot more experience (now)."

— Doug Hamrick, project general manager for Washington Group International, the contractor for the Umatilla Chemical Depot facility

HERMISTON — Based on experiences from other chemical agent disposal facilities, the Army has asked for another five-year extension of the treaty deadline for destruction of the chemical weapons stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The new deadline would push the completion date from 2012 to 2017.

According to Greg Mahall, the Chemical Materials Agency public affairs, a number of factors have contributed to why chemical agent disposal facilities may not meet the 2012 deadline. For Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, rocket fires have created several delays.

Mahall says the Army has a lot more data about the process of destroying of chemical weapons than they did when the project first started 16 years ago.

"We know where the problems are," Mahall said. "The goal was, without sacrificing safety, to meet the 2012 deadline."

However, based on experience and reviews of the data from the projects, 2017 appears to be the deadline for actual operations to be completed, Mahall explained.

A concern the Army has is budgeting.

"We need to recognize the need to address funding issues," Mahall said. "Closure comes after the final destruction of weapons. There needs to be enough money to complete the projects."

Doug Hamrick, project general manager for Washington Group International, the contractor for the project says there has been a change in philosophy on the part of the Army.

"All the schedules have been extremely optimistic," Hamrick said. "There is a lot more predictability, a lot more experience (now). We also need to ensure the money is in the budget to see the project through."

Hamrick believes the new deadline is more "realistic" than the 2012 deadline.

"We have been reluctant in the past to predict (without knowledge)," Hamrick added. "We want the project done. We have to be safe and environmentally safe."

The mustard campaign, which will be the last campaign the facility will destroy, may take longer than expected, Hamrick says.

"Mustard will provide significant challenges to the optimistic schedule," he said. "The last campaign will clearly be a large project. Thankfully, mustard presents a low risk to the public."

Hamrick has people visiting the Tooele, Utah facility to get a birds-eye view of how their mustard campaign is progressing. He says there may be heavy metals in the mustard that could present a problem, which is why he has a team at Tooele.

Umatilla has met some milestones since the start-up of agent operations on Sept. 8, 2004.

The facility just completed destruction of 75 percent, or 68,531, of the GB sarin M55 rockets stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. The 550 GB bombs left on the depot should be completely destroyed in June, Hamrick says.

"That will be the end of the entire population of GB bombs in the U. S. inventory," Hamrick said.

The Chemical Weapons Convention treaty gave the United States 10 years from April 29, 1997 (when the treaty went into effect) to destroy its declared stockpile of 31,500 tons of chemical agents. This 10-year window included a provision for a one-time, five-year extension. The deadline was extended to April 2012 in 2003.