DEPOT NOW MOVING ON TO BOMB PROCESSING

Published: September 30, 2005

By Karen Hutchinson-Talaski
Staff writer

HERMISTON — The first GB bombs were destroyed at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal, the second type of chemical weapon to be eliminated at the facility.

On Sept. 27, operators punched and drained two 750-pound bombs. Since Tuesday, 16 GB bombs have been punched and drained of their chemical agent, says Adam Russell, acting protocol officer for the project's contractor, Washington Group International. Up until Tuesday, the facility had been only destroying rockets.

There are about 2,400 bombs stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. They come in two sizes — 750-pound bombs, which contain about 220 pounds of agent, and 500-pound bombs, which hold about 108 pounds of agent.

"As of Wednesday, 16 bombs have been punched and drained, Russell said. He said the bombs were expected to be processed today.

After being punched and drained of liquid chemical agents, the bombs are destroyed in the Metal Parts Furnace. Rockets are destroyed in the Deactivation Furnace. Rockets and bombs will not be destroyed at the same time, however, they will be destroyed complementarily, says Doug Hamrick, UMCDF's project general manager for Washington Group International.

"We will be able to process rockets and bombs to take advantage of any equipment downtime, which will help further reduce the threat to the community," Hamrick said. "By this time next year, we may be very close to finishing both the rocket and bomb campaigns, if not completely finished."

Russell says no date has been determined yet for the destruction of four one-ton containers of GB agent, which contain a mixture of agent and decontamination solutions from past storage operations. The Metal Parts Furnace will be used to process those ton containers.

The Metal Parts Furnace will also process secondary wastes that are generated during weapons processing. Secondary wastes are materials such as brine from the pollution abatement system, used decontamination solution and carbon, and a variety of maintenance wastes.

Since startup at the facility began in September of 2004, workers at UMCDF have destroyed 31,098 GB M55 rockets and 329,291 pounds of agent. Those numbers equal more than one third of the total GB agent rockets stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Eleven storage igloos have been emptied and the 1,000th transport of rockets to the disposal facility has been completed.