Challenge to Umatilla depot likely quashed

This story was published Fri, May 19, 2000

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

PORTLAND - Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission is expected to turn down a request by environmental groups and local residents to revoke the permits allowing the Army to incinerate lethal chemical agents at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Although commission members did not vote on the revocation request during a Thursday meeting in Portland, independently they said they would deny the attempt to halt the incineration of chemical weapons near Hermiston.

The commission heard hours of testimony from the Army, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and from lawyers representing environmental groups and local residents who requested the permits be revoked because of environmental issues.

DEQ representative Wayne Thomas said the official vote was not taken because one commissioner, Harvey Bennett, was not present for the meeting.

Bennett's four fellow commissioners wanted to give him the opportunity to view a videotape of the meeting and give his opinion before making the final decision, Thomas said.

"The commission asked the DEQ to draft an order stating the permit will not be revoked," Thomas said.

That order likely will be signed at the commission's next meeting July 13-14 in Tillamook.

The revocation hearing was just one more round in a fight that started in August 1997 when incinerator opponents filed their Circuit Court suit. That suit claimed 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 aging weapons.

The Umatilla Chemical Depot, seven miles west of Hermiston, stores 220,604 munitions and containers filled with 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents. The Army plans to begin burning the weapons in an incinerator in October 2001.

Circuit Court Judge Michael Marcus ruled against the environmental groups, which quickly filed an appeal.

Last June, Marcus deferred the issue to the DEQ and the commission to evaluate the risks of carbon filters that will be used in the incinerator plant to absorb the chemical pollutants released when the munitions are opened.

The carbon filters are unproven and potentially dangerous, said Richard Condit, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

In a 2-inch-thick report prepared by the DEQ for Thursday's meeting, the agency addressed opponents' concerns about the carbon filter systems, toxicity and health risks.

The risk of catastrophic releases form the chemical weapons stored at the depot remains far above the risk of incineration, said Sue Oliver, the DEQ representative who prepared the report. Condit listened to the hearing and testified by telephone from his Washington, D.C., office. He said he wasn't surprised by the report or the commissioners' decision not to revoke the permit.

"I have appeared in front of the commission several times, and my impression is that the commission is not inclined to reconsider the permit," Condit said. "But there are many risk issues that have been unresolved for whatever reason."

Condit said he also doesn't like the DEQ's stance that incinerating the chemical weapons is safer than storing them.

"Based on what?" Condit said. "The Army has prided itself on being able to store these munitions safely for 40 years."

Once the commission has made its formal vote, Condit said his group will be back in the appellate courtroom.

Marcus' original decision on the permit grant now is before the Oregon Court of Appeals, Condit said.

"This decision is a separate action and agency decision, because the law provides for that when there is a threat to the human environment," Condit said.

 

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