CHEMICAL DEPOT REPORTS HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE WEEK

Published: October 25, 2005

By Karen Hutchinson-Talaski
Staff writer

HERMISTON — The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal had its highest processing of M55 GB rockets last week when a total of 2,200 rockets were destroyed.

"We are running at 100 percent feed rate in preparation for the Toxic Substances Control Act trial burns," said Adam Russell, acting public affairs officer at UMCDF.

On Oct.19, the facility destroyed 500 GB (sarin) rockets. It was the third-highest daily total in the project's history.

The Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, will demonstrate the plant's ability to filter out PCBs during processing, Russell says.

The facility needs to be 99.9999 percent effective in removing the toxic substance.

The TSCA trial burns are expected to begin on Thursday, and will run about three days. Russell says once the TSCA trial burns are over and routine maintenance is completed, the facility will start destroying GB-filled bombs again. So far, the facility has destroyed 28 bombs.

The UMCDF has destroyed nearly 38 percent of the GB M55 rockets stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. A total of 368,988 pounds of chemical agent destroyed since start-up began Sept. 8, 2004, which brings the total percentage of agent tons destroyed to 4.96 percent.

Another type of milestone was met on Sunday at the facility as well.

"On Sunday, we celebrated one year without a lost-time accident," Russell said.