Trespasser reported at Umatilla
Chemical Depot

The Associated Press
December 5, 2003

HERMISTON — A trespasser was spotted at the Umatilla Chemical Depot but was able to elude guards because of darkness and fog, officials said.

The person was spotted by a routine security patrol Wednesday morning, several hundred yards from the depot’s nerve agent storage area, said depot spokeswoman Mary Binder.

She said that the person did not pose a threat to the nerve agent stockpile, which is protected by a fence, guards and an electric detection system.

There was no indication that the intruder was armed, she said.

Security at the depot has been heightened since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. About 100 Oregon National Guard members are helping depot security personnel.

Reports of trespassers on the depot grounds are rare.

In August 2001, two Hermiston teens trespassed on a remote section of the 20,000-acre depot to shoot birds and were found by security troops after their pickup got stuck in the sand.