'Thanks for nothing,' says Umatilla County official

This story was published Wed, Jun 9, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty delivered a stinging message Tuesday that he hopes Congress hears loud and clear: "Thanks for nothing."

The comment was in response to a $40 million federal study of alternatives to burning Umatilla Chemical Depot's stockpile of lethal chemical weapons.

To Doherty and others, it looks like the decision to incinerate the weapons is irreversible and the talk about alternatives purely academic.

"If their idea is to spend $40 million for alternatives we can't have, then I say 'thanks for nothing,' " Doherty said.

He was among 60 Mid-Columbia residents and civic leaders at the Hermiston Community Center who listened to members of the federally established Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program.

This program, which is known by the acronym ACWA and pronounced "aqua," was given $40 million by Congress in 1996 to find alternative solutions - such as chemical neutralization - to incineration of chemical weapons.

The goal of ACWA is to find the best way to dispose of chemical weapons with explosive parts.

And, after about four months of researching three specific alternatives to incineration, ACWA will release a report to Congress in September on whether any of those three alternative technologies will work.

ACWA representatives made it clear Tuesday that their report won't compare the merits of alternative technologies with incineration and that the plan to incinerate the 3,717 tons of chemical weapons stored at Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston remains in place.

But ACWA had to discuss the alternatives with the Hermiston-area communities and encourage public reaction to the alternatives as part of the law that governs the chemical weapons assessment program.

Public comment is being sought from all chemical weapons depot communities, whether they have an incinerator or not.

The $567 million incinerator under construction at Umatilla is 50Êpercent complete, with burning to begin by October 2001.

"As far as letting the public know about alternative technology, yes, this is relevant to Umatilla," said ACWA's Bill Pehlivanian, deputy program manager.

Pehlivanian added it's too early to tell and would take additional study and more than the $40 million to determine whether Umatilla's incinerator can be retrofitted into an alternative method of disposal.

With that said, the ire of some in the crowd was raised.

"If an alternative is not preferable for Umatilla, why mess up my mind? What's the point?" Doherty said. "My concern is this is leading to a conclusion that says there's an alternative out there you might like but can't use it. That's divisive and doesn't take us anywhere."

But Susan Jones, an opponent of incineration, said ACWA is helping create an overall view of alternative methods of disposal of chemical weapons for the whole country, not just Hermiston.

 

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