FEMA taking over distribution of depot alarm radios

This story was published Tue, Feb 2, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Citizens living nearest to the Umatilla Chemical Depot may get their special alarm radios sooner rather than later after federal emergency managers announced Monday that they were taking over the program.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that they were moved to take charge of getting the tone-alert radios out to the public for fear that a continuing court squabble over who makes the radios would further delay their distribution.

FEMA officials are hoping to begin distributing the radios to depot-area communities within the next few months.

"I see this action as essential and absolutely the right thing to do to get these radios quickly to the people who will need them during a chemical emergency," said David de Courcy, FEMA's regional director.

"Tone-alert radios will be the public's first line of defense for getting critical, potentially lifesaving emergency information," de Courcy said.

FEMA allocated about $3 million to Umatilla and Morrow counties to be disbursed through the state's Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program to buy the radios.

The devices sound an alarm to tell people indoors if a nerve gas leak has occurred at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, where 3,717 tons of aging lethal chemical agent is stored eight miles west of Hermiston.

The radios are a critical component of CSEPP's early warning system and designed to complement CSEPP's suite of highway reader boards and outdoor emergency sirens that also alert residents of potential disaster.

So far, depot-area communities have yet to receive these radios because of two competing companies squabbling over the lucrative $3 million contract.

Last fall, TFT Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., appealed Umatilla County's decision to award the contract to Federal Signal Corp. A Circuit Court hearing on the tone alert contract is set for early March.

Though the lawsuit may continue its course, federal officials believe that by taking the program out of the hands of Umatilla and Morrow counties the public can get radios faster, said Jesse Seigal, FEMA public information officer.

"The lawsuit will have to take care of itself," Seigal said. "Our decision to take over the program came about because of that problem. We don't know if that will go away. We don't know what will happen, ... but we looked at the best way to get the radios into the hands of the public as quickly as possible."

Now, the process of getting the radios produced begins again.

The first step is putting the contract out for rebid. FEMA plans on making it a specific part of the contract that the company producing the radios must adhere to a strict deadline so the 17,000 tone-alert radios can be produced as quickly as possible, Seigal said.

Once FEMA selects a company to build the radios, the agency plans on contracting out their distribution. FEMA also has agreed to maintain the radios and replace any that malfunction, Seigal said.

FEMA's takeover of the tone-alert radio project shouldn't reflect badly on how Umatilla County handled the contract, Seigal said.

The decision for FEMA to take over the tone-alert program was made jointly by FEMA officials, commissioners from the two counties and Oregon Emergency Management officials who oversee CSEPP.

"When this lawsuit happened, we all needed help in finding a solution, and we jointly came up with this solution," Seigal said. "There's no second-guessing, no finger-pointing. It was just one of the ways of getting the radios out faster."

FEMA's decision to handle the tone-alert radio contract comes less than a month after Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty criticized the agency for not providing legal assistance or money to help the county fight the lawsuit.

Though both counties were named in the lawsuit, along with OEM, Umatilla County took the lead during the contract bid process and in awarding the contract to Federal Signal.

Doherty did not wish to make a comment Monday when asked about FEMA taking over the tone-alert program.

 

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