Hermiston center gets extra measure of safety

This story was published Sat, Jun 24, 2000

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The Hermiston Safety Center soon will be a safer place to be if a chemical release occurs at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Umatilla County commissioners awarded a contract last week to Apollo Sheet Metal of Kennewick to install a positive pressurization unit at the safety center on First Street in Hermiston.

The 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.

The units, already in use elsewhere in the county, use a special filterization process that would remove any chemical agents from the air in the event of a chemical release, said Lenore Pointer, representative for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, or CSEPP.

The units also can pump in additional good air into buildings, blocking the ability of contaminated air to leak through cracks or tiny holes in the structure, Pointer said.

That will make the safety center, which houses all of Hermiston's fire, ambulance and police services, a much safer place for the emergency personnel who work there, officials said.

"In the event of a catastrophe that prompts a release, we need the center to be safe for our dispatchers and officers," Hermiston police Chief Andy Anderson said.

The safety center's pressurization unit will cost more than $310,000 to construct and is being funded through CSEPP. Installation should begin soon, Anderson said.

The county commissioners also awarded Apollo a $108,000 maintenance contract for existing pressurization units throughout the county.

Eleven Umatilla schools already have the pressurization units installed and units are being constructed at Umatilla High School, Good Samaritan Center and Good Shepherd Medical Center.

In addition, a unit will be installed in the new Hermiston elementary school, which is under construction.

 

Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.