Hermiston Herald
May 14, 2002

FEMA remarks catch Army off guard

HERMISTON - The Army is as committed to emergency preparedness as ever,
despite reports that FEMA wants out of the chemical stockpile
demilitarization business, Army officials said Monday.

Oregon Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program determined Friday
that they had passed performance measures. That success coincided with
reports that FEMA wanted to cut its ties with CSEPP.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh reportedly
requested that FEMA be relieved of its duties associated with CSEPP, and was
quoted as saying "The Army should have the whole program."

Denzel Fisher from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army,
attended Monday's Irrigon meeting of the Oregon CSEPP Governing Board, and
gave a "history" of FEMA involvement. Friday's news had taken him off guard,
he said, but FEMA has tried on two earlier occasions to be relieved of CSEPP
responsibilities. The problems were worked out then and likely will be now
as well, he said. At any rate, the Army has always been, and remains,
committed to state and local government when critical emergency preparedness
items were needed, he said.

"You will not find a time when the Army has failed to support the federal
emergency program," he said. Instead, he said, "it was the Army's decision
to create this program in the first place. I was the one who negotiated for
the original money in 1988." In 1997, FEMA had tried to back out of CSEPP.
"It has been a rocky road, but we have always been able to work through
things, and this is not going to be an exception," he said.

"The Army's responsible for the demilitarization program and always will
be," he said. If more money is needed, the Army will make requests to
Congress and negotiate aggressively for it, he said. Emergency preparedness
will always have the Army's support, "regardless of who is calling the
shots," he said.

Board members asked whether they would be able to have input into any
reorganization. Army Special Assistant Larry Skelley, who was also present
Monday, said "If we have to reorganize, it will be done, I think, with
complete and total participation by the state."

As a measure of government commitment to preparedness, CSEPP is the only
federal program he is aware of that is fully funded, Skelly told The
Hermiston Herald.

Although Fisher and Skelly were outspoken about the Army's commitment to
CSEPP, no one at the meeting had information that would shed light on
Allbaugh's comments. They did not know the context, or what Allbaugh meant
by the statements, Skelly and Fisher said.

In other business, the Governing Board decided to recommend to today's
meeting of the Governor's Executive Review Panel that the ERP's report to
the governor say that emergency preparedness is adequate to start up the
Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, although they agreed the ERP
report should be qualified with a letter explaining that there was
unfinished necessary work to be done, including the purchase and
implementation of a 450-megahertz radio system.

[Frank Lockwood may be reached by telephone at (541) 567-6457, by
e-mail at flockwood@hermistonherald.com, or by U.S. mail at the Hermiston
Herald, P.O. Box 46, Hermiston, Oregon, 97838.]