No surprises for Umatilla depot inspectors

This story was published Tue, Jun 13, 2000

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA - An eight-member international inspection team found nothing out of place or unaccounted for last week at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The team, which completed its fifth depot inspection Friday, is from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The organization, which has its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, was established through the Chemical Weapons Convention to make sure convention members follow the convention's rules and regulations.

Depot spokeswoman Mary Binder said the team arrived June 6 and left Saturday afternoon, after presenting its report to depot officials.

Binder said the team physically inventories the amount and types of munitions at the depot to make sure the weapons that are supposed to be there are there.

"They know what we have declared - the number and types of munitions we have here," Binder said.

The team members - from the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia and Slovenia - found no discrepancies, officials said.

"The team members reviewed records, completed a 100 percent physical inventory of the chemical weapons stockpiles here and, using state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment, randomly sampled weapons to confirm the amount of chemical agent declared under treaty provisions," said Mary Hensal, the depot's treaty officer.

Once disposal operations begin at the depot, seven miles south of Hermiston, team members will be on the site permanently, Binder said. "They will have offices and their own lab facilities," she said.

The team will be there to make sure the Army is destroying the entire munitions store at the depot, in accordance with the treaty, Binder said.

The organization was established through the treaty to oversee worldwide compliance, Binder said.

The convention prohibits developing, producing, stockpiling and using chemical weapons.

The United States ratified the treaty April 29, 1997, and has 10 years from ratification to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile.

Previous depot inspections by the organization were conducted in September of 1997 and 1998 and in February and August of 1999.

 

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