Depot task force checking incinerator's process

This story was published Wed, Jan 6, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - A special task force should know by the end of month if the weapons incinerator under construction at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston is behind schedule or will cost more.

The task force, made up of members from the three partners working on the incinerator project, have been meeting for about six months and are expected to file a status report Jan. 27.

But some officials don't want to wait that long for the answers.

The incinerator's schedule became a topic of discussion Tuesday during the monthly Umatilla County mayors' meeting in Hermiston.

"How far behind is the project?" asked Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider.

"I don't know. I don't have a feel for that," answered Pat Silva, assistant site project manager for the incinerator. "The task force is working on that." She said the project is 32 percent complete.

Others attending the meeting included Army representatives and members of the state's Department of Environmental Quality, two Umatilla County commissioners and field representatives for Oregon's two U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith.

The three partners in the incineration project are Raytheon Demilitarization Co., the contractor building the incinerator, the Army's Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Last fall, Raytheon officials cited design changes and modifications ordered by the Army as reasons why the incinerator might not be completed by April 2000.

Raytheon also submitted a request for an additional $5.7 million to cover the costs of certain changes to the project.

If that amount is approved, it would bring the price tag for the incinerator up from $567 million to about $572 million.

The Army and the Corps of Engineers have maintained the project is on schedule to be completely built by April 2000, on budget.

Already, Army and Raytheon officials are under pressure to get the project finished so the 3,717 tons of aging chemical weapons stored at the depot can be burned by the Army's March 2005 deadline.

It's been estimated by the Army that in a worst-case scenario, continued storage of the deteriorating and leaking chemical stockpile could result in killing more than 10,000 people within a 62-mile radius of the depot.

Silva said once task force members have made their final report by Jan. 27, it will be sent to James Bacon, head of the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization, the Army's special branch that oversees the nation's chemical weapons program.

Also attending Tuesday's meeting was Mary Binder, the Army's new public information officer.

Binder previously worked at the Army's depot in Pueblo, Colo., and takes over for Donna Fuzi, who was promoted to chief of the depot's chemical preparedness division.

 

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