Groups, residents continue fight against depot burn

This story was published Thu, Jul 8, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Several environmental groups and 22 local residents are continuing their fight against incineration of lethal chemical weapons, despite legal setbacks.

The coalition filed a notice last week, indicating they plan to appeal a Multnomah Circuit Court judge's ruling in favor of the incinerator.

The action means The Sierra Club, Wildlife Federation, GASP - Group Against Social Predation - and the residents won't give up their two-year effort to prevent the Army from burning the 3,717 tons of aging chemicals stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston.

"The fight continues," Stuart Sugarman, one of the attorneys representing the incinerator opponents, said Wednesday.

Proponents of incineration might have hoped the June 1 ruling by Judge Michael Marcus would end the lengthy debate over the incinerator.

But after last week's action, it's not clear how long the debate might last. Once a formal notice is filed, it can take months just for both sides to file all the paperwork required.

The controversy started in August 1997, when incinerator opponents filed their lawsuit, claiming hazardous waste operating permits that allowed the Army to burn chemical weapons were issued without sufficient proof the incinerator works safely.

The suit also claimed state authorities erred by not considering alternative technologies - such as chemical neutralization - to destroy the weapons.

"Our legal team is confident that the Court of Appeals will overturn errors made in the trial court," Sugarman said Wednesday.

"And we're very confident the Court of Appeals will agree with us that the state permits issued by the Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Quality Commission were inadequate."

Ultimately, incineration opponents are seeking to overturn Marcus' ruling made in June that allowed the Army to continue its incineration project at the Umatilla depot.

The $604 million incinerator is under construction and is scheduled to burn the Umatilla chemical weapons stockpile - about 12 percent of the nation's chemical arsenal - by 2005.

In making his ruling, Marcus refused to accept incinerator opponents' arguments that state agencies were allegedly operating as pawns of the Army when they issued hazardous waste permits to operate the incinerator.

Marcus also told the opponents they got what they asked for now that state agencies plan to hold a work session in August to discuss the carbon filters in the incinerator emissions control system.

State agency officials said they would review any new evidence indicating the filter system is deficient.

Opponents of the carbon filters - designed to keep bad air from leaving the incinerator during burning - have said they are unproven and potentially dangerous.

Environmental Quality Commission members plan on holding a special meeting Aug. 18 in Portland to discuss the carbon filter system, among other topics.

A representative from the National Research Council may brief the commissioners on results of an evaluation it performed on the carbon filtering system. The NRC provides independent advice on science and technology issues under congressional charter.

 

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