Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality has fined Umatilla Chemical Depot $184,800 for hazardous waste violations during 2003 tests of a furnace at the Eastern Oregon site.

The penalty is the largest ever levied for problems at the chemical weapons site, which is gearing up to start incinerating nerve agent as soon as July. Technically, the fines were split between the U.S. Army, the site's owner, and the Washington Demilitarization Co., which contracts to run the incinerator. Counted together, the penalty would be the eighth-biggest fine ever levied by the DEQ.

The fines cover 11 days in July when depot workers were testing a metal parts furnace, which will process metal parts of bombs that contain chemical weapons. The tests did not involve any actual weapons or chemical agents. But it did involve the use of "surrogates," such as a chemical similar to antifreeze, that engineers can measure, said Rick Kelley, spokesman for the contractor.

The surrogate chemicals are still "hazardous materials" regulated by the state, said Dennis Murphey, the DEQ administrator overseeing the depot.

In issuing the fine, the DEQ said operators bypassed two health and safety systems during the tests. One is a system that can automatically stop the flow of hazardous waste. The operators also bypassed carbon filters that should clean exhaust gas before it is released into the atmosphere.

The agency issued a notice about the violations Aug. 18, Murphey said.

Spokesmen for the Army and contractor each said they are considering whether to contest the fine, which they can do within 20 days.

"We do question the severity of the fines," Kelley said, "simply because there was no danger to human health or the environment."