Editorial
Time to destroy
Umatilla's WMD
Under the scrutiny of Oregon environmental regulators, the burning of these
chemical weapons must finally begin
Sunday, July 11, 2004
I f all goes as expected, a momentous day will arrive next month in northeastern
Oregon, home of one of the world's largest stockpiles of outlawed chemical
weapons. An elite crew of specially trained munitions handlers will feed
a single rocket containing sarin nerve agent into a robotic system that will
bore a hole in it, drain it, disassemble it and finally incinerate it.
Destruction of that single rocket will represent the end of 20 years of often-turbulent
public process and the start of six years of toil to destroy the remaining
3,700 tons of nerve and mustard agent contained in increasingly unstable
weapons and containers at the U.S. Army's Umatilla Chemical Depot.
We say it's time. So do Oregon environmental officials. And so do most leaders
of the communities surrounding the military complex where the munitions have
been stored in bunkers since the early 1960s.
The state government's team of environmental watchdogs, after monitoring
testing of the Army's massive new weapons incinerator for the past three
years, is poised to recommend that the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission
approve a final permit on Aug. 13. Army officials say the burning of nerve
agent will begin within a few days of the expected approval.
It'll begin, that is, if opponents don't get a legal injunction to stop it.
A Hermiston activist group called Gasp and other plaintiffs have gone to
court seeking to block the Army's permit. The opponents argue that newer,
supposedly safer technologies should be used to destroy the weapons.
Community leaders argue more persuasively that alternative technologies have
drawbacks, too, and that it would be irresponsible to drag out the destruction
of these weapons any longer.
"The time has come," says former Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider. "Almost
nobody around here is scared anymore. We can't move that deadly stuff, and
the risk of storing it is worse than the risk of burning it. Eighty-four
percent to 86 percent of the people here just want to get rid of it."
High-tech incineration was used successfully and safely in the 1990s to destroy
more than 2,000 tons of chemical weapons stored on Johnston Atoll, south
of the Hawaiian Islands. Even more sophisticated engineering has gone into
the Hermiston incinerator and others in various stages of the process in
Utah, Alabama and Arkansas.
Opponents in Oregon should have more faith in the state's Department of Environmental
Quality, not exactly known as a pro-polluter pushover. The DEQ has a staff
of nine in Hermiston that has been diligently monitoring testing of the big
burner and will continue its public-safety role until the last drop of nerve
agent is destroyed and the plant is dismantled and removed.
It's been 20 years since the United States entered a treaty requiring nations
to destroy their chemical weapons. During the ensuing two decades of hearings,
planning, construction, training and testing, scores of the aging munitions
at Umatilla have leaked.
But finally, the Army's $1.2 billion new incinerator at Umatilla stands ready
to rid the world of this terrible menace. Let's get on with it.