Hermiston Herald
12/18/01

Funding obstacles could delay startup of agent incineration

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

Funding interruptions hamper safety preparations and could delay startup of incineration at Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, said Dennis Doherty, the head of Oregon's CSEPP Governing board.

Program money travels a precipitous, route: Forecasting, budgeting, funding requests, appropriations, approvals, funding, and allocations, all must be done, and some must be repeated at different levels of administration. As of Dec. 7 this fiscal year, 80 percent of CSEPP's budget request had been approved, but not all of that had been funded. It will take at least a month for that money to trickle down to the local level, and that assumes President Bush signs the bill.

"When more than the first quarter of the year passes before the money flows, programs have less than nine months to do the work that they have planned for 12 months," Doherty said. "Program people are constantly working under the shadow of this budgeting and funding uncertainty."

The same shadow hovers over the Army's attempts to meet target dates set by international treaties, because, supposedly, they cannot burn Oregon's cache of chemical weapons until adequate emergency preparedness measures are in place.

For most of us, incineration is something that we need to get on with, and we are doing our level best to get ourselves to where the emergency preparedness needs to be, and to meet our goals," Doherty said. That is more difficult to do when the money flow dictates that almost the entire year's work be done in eight months, in spite of CSEPP's best efforts. "It is driven by federal rules. We can't change federal rules," he said.

As a result, startup could be delayed at Umatilla Chemical Depot.

"Funding uncertainty equates to delays, and does impair our ability to do our work on the schedules that we develop," he said. Notwithstanding, "I think that, over the long haul, we will get funding to do everything that we need to do," he said

Pressure to complete emergency preparedness more quickly comes from Congress, from the Army, from Federal Emergency Management and from the public, and is felt by program workers, he said. Sometimes they know what to do, but cannot do it because they are waiting for the money.

"When there is this compressing, the demand to get the work done Linder this shorter time frame, then we have a little bit of a quandary locally," he said.

Doherty said CSEPP is working to get around the obstacles. "We all remain totally committed to accommodating the Army's schedule, when it is within our power to do so," Doherty said. "The staff, and the volunteers, especially the fire departments, are for sure doing their parts." Doherty said he hopes the federal government will do its part by making sure the money is there when it is needed.

When he was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Doherty was able to speak with Assistant Undersecretary of Defense Peter Aldridge, with Joe Albaugh, director of FEMA, Russ Salter with FEMA and CSEPP, Denzel Fisher from the Army, and Congressional staffers, but not with members of the Congressional delegation: Sen. Gordon Smith, Sen. Ron Wyden, and Rep. Greg Walden.

Prior to announcements late last week that the appropriations bill had passed, Doherty said he was concerned that lack of money could cause a postponing of critical exercises designed to test emergency preparedness.

On Jan. 26, a "JANEX" exercise is scheduled to test VHF radio systems, to see if they can be used temporarily, until a better, 450 Megahertz system can be put in place. JANEX will also be an opportunity to pass new medical performance measures, which were created to replace standards that were failed on May 8. But, Doherty said, Oregon CSEPP manger Chris Brown had raised the possibility JANEX would not be funded until the appropriate appropriations bill passed.

Congress approved the appropriations bill late Thursday, 382 to 40 in the House and 96 to two in the Senate. If the president vetoed the bill, however, it would mean further delays.

An amendment to the bill, by Senator Mitch McConnell, (R-KY), requires a review of the risk the chemical weapons pose in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In addition, McConnell wants the Army to assess the risk of continuing to store these weapons in communities now that the Army's new disposal schedule shows that incineration could take as long as 15 years more to destroy the munitions.