Hermiston Herald
June 18, 2002

Governor to review risk assessment

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

HERMISTON - The governor's staff has asked the Army to review an independent risk assessment which claimed the risk conclusions for Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility were "totally incorrect." The Army had underestimated the risk of death or illness in the event of contamination by as much as 200 percent, the report claims.

Gov. John Kitzhaber announced publicly Wednesday that an off-post emergency preparedness plan was "adequate and fully operational."

Texas risk analyst Jared Black reacted to the governor's decision this way: "While it may be true that a emergency plan is in place, adequate and operational, it would be better if the governor could say that the disposal plant processing system could safely dispose of the nerve agents, thereby making the emergency plan redundant."

Black had advised Chris Dearth, the governor's media representative, that data used when permitting UMCDF may have been inaccurate; in some cases it was off by a factor of 200, according to EPA data. The nerve agent VX may have been as much as 200 times more lethal than the figures used to determine the plant's risk to public health.

Before Wednesday's public decision to approve the state of Oregon CSEPP's emergency preparedness, the governor was briefed on Dr. Black's report, Dearth said, but that briefing did not cause the governor to postpone his decision.

"(The governor) takes this new information very seriously and will await the review by the Army's risk management quality assurance division before making a decision whether further action is necessary," Dearth reported.

Black questions the wisdom of turning the matter back over to the Army. "They are asking the Army to review my report," Black wrote. "Dearth said they have no one on staff that can do a review, so it has to be the Army. Why not University of Oregon, or Oregon State (University) faculty?

"I am not sure the Army is unbiased."