Hermsiton 911 dispatch center to get overpressurization system

This story was published Thu, Feb 18, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Hermiston's emergency police dispatchers can breath a little easier now that money has been approved to protect the air inside the 911 dispatch center during a nerve agent leak from the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Emergency management officials announced Wednesday that $175,000 has been allocated to overpressurize the 911 dispatch center at the Hermiston Public Safety Center, 330 S. First St.

Overpressurization systems are designed to produce more air inside buildings than out, creating an air flow that keeps out contaminated air. Overpressurization systems also have been installed at 11 area schools. Federal Emergency Management Agency engineers inspected the building last week. They agreed an overpressurization system was a "doable project," at the safety center, said Tom Groat, with Umatilla County's emergency management program.

"We'll move forward with the project," Goat said. "We're in the very early stages, but it should be a move forward on this unless something, in terms of the building, turns out to be really out of line. But I don't see that out there, so we should be able to move forward on that."

The money to pay for the dispatch center's overpressurization system comes out of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program's $5.1 million budget for the 1999 fiscal year. CSEPP provides emergency planning, public education and warning systems - such as highway reader boards and emergency sirens - to help protect residents in the event of a lethal nerve agent leak from the depot eight miles west of Hermiston.

The depot stores 3,717 tons of aging chemical weapons - about 12 percent of the nation's stockpile. It is scheduled to be destroyed by 2005.

"It's very important that the 911 lines stay working in the event of a lethal nerve agent leak so there's someone to answer the phones," said Hermiston Fire Chief Jim Stearns.

 

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