Voice of the Mid-Columbia
Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington

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Depot, others destroy 40 percent of nation's chemical stockpile

Published Monday, January 29th, 2007

By the Herald staff

HERMISTON -- The Umatilla Chemical Depot and sites like it have destroyed 40 percent of the nation's chemical blister and nerve agents, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announced Monday.

To comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which requires that the U.S. destroy its chemical weapons, 45 percent of the country's stockpile must be eliminated by December.

It looks like the country will meet that deadline, said Dale Ormond, the agency's acting director.

The announcement comes just as the Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerator is starting to destroy the last of the site's GB sarin stockpile. On Friday, the incinerator began destroying 155mm projectiles filled with the deadly nerve agent.

For more on this story, read Tuesday's Tri-City Herald.

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