Chemical depot prepared for millennium bug, officials say

This story was published Sun, Feb 28, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Army officials are dealing with the millennium bug like they would any other enemy, except they know this one won't make a surprise attack.

"We know the time and place this enemy will strike," said Rick Holmes, head of the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Project's Y2K Compliance Program. "It has the capability to shut down our fuel system and electricity - everything an enemy would go after. But I am confident that we have put our arms around the problem."

At the Umatilla Chemical Depot eight miles west of Hermiston, computer systems have either been upgraded or newer systems installed that are already Y2K compliant, said Mary Binder, an Army public information officer.

The depot stores 3,717 tons of aging lethal nerve agent GB, VX and mustard gas that are to be destroyed by March 2005. It's been estimated by the Army that in a worst-case scenario, continued storage of the deteriorating chemical stockpile could result in the deaths of more than 10,000 people within a 62-mile radius of the depot.

Army officials working at the depot's emergency operations center stand by 24 hours a day, seven days a week to monitor for any type of chemical disaster.

Sophisticated Army computer systems link into the Federal Emergency Management Information System, known as FEMIS, and the Emergency Management Information System, known as EMIS.

FEMIS and EMIS are huge data bases that allow the Army and other emergency managers to tune into up-to-date emergency information, such as how many fire trucks are available at any one time or locations of all the ambulances in the area.

Army officials can use FEMIS and EMIS to coordinate any emergency effort with other emergency operations centers on the county and state level if an accident occurs at the depot. And Binder said both systems are Y2K compliant.

The depot computer system yet to be fully upgraded for Y2K is that used at the depot's mobile monitoring labs. These trailer-based labs routinely monitor the inside of the concrete bunkers called "igloos" to check for any leaking nerve agents.

Binder said the mobile lab computers are expected to be upgraded by summer or fall. But she said the computers not being Y2K compliant will not affect the test results when checking for leakers.

"Workers might not see a correct date but it would not affect the monitoring of the stuff," Binder said.

Should an accident occur, the Army would work with other emergency response agencies on the state, county and local level though Oregon Emergency Management.

OEM oversees the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, which was set up by Congress to help communities prepare for a possible lethal chemical accident.

The sirens and emergency reader boards and other facets of CSEPP's preparedness program are all computer controlled. But should an accident occur, emergency managers are ready to respond.

"We don't use any of the protocols that remotely might have the Y2K bug," said Steve Hathaway, systems analyst for OEM. "The alert notification systems that are compliant control the sirens and message boards and all are set and ready.

"Should the unforeseen happen, we don't expect any problems. The biggest problem in emergency management, like any other emergency, is rumor control," Hathaway said.

Recently, the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a group opposed to burning chemical weapons, issued a press release citing a federal report critical of the Army's Y2K compliance schedule.

The report, produced by the Pentagon Inspector General and released in December, said the Army's Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization "failed to prepare the necessary Year 2000 documentation and has no contingency plans, risk management plans, system validation plan or schedule in place" for compliance, according to a statement released by the anti-incineration group.

The inspector general also raised serious questions surrounding Army reports to the Pentagon on critical systems at chemical weapons incinerators on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific and at Tooele, Utah, where chemical agent already is being burned, the group said.

But Army officials who oversee the nations' chemical weapons disposal program maintain all "mission-critical computer systems" will be compliant well before the Year 2000.

At Johnston Atoll, workers are assessing the equipment connected to the control system for the plant, and that assessment is expected to be completed by March. At Tooele, computer fixes are expected to be installed and completed by October.

The Army's Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization "is on a path to fixing the problem," said the Army's Holmes. "We can't use the excuse that we can't safety get rid of our chemical stockpile on Jan. 1, 2000, because our computers went down."

 

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