DEQ takes charge of depot's weapons

This story was published Sun, Mar 11, 2001

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality now has oversight of every chemical weapon stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The change came Friday during a meeting in Hermiston, when Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission unanimously approved a DEQ request for more control at the depot.

Previously, state jurisdiction was limited to rockets and munitions that have leaked, which left about half the depot's total munitions and 84 percent of the total weight of its chemical agents without DEQ oversight.

Everything that didn't leak was still considered to be a weapon, a classification that doesn't fall under DEQ's oversight.

The change in status means the DEQ can now independently test and monitor all of the depot's storage igloos to make sure chemical agent isn't being released.

The change also allows the state to require the Army to take special precautions, such as adding carbon filters - to capture any leaking chemical agents - to the vents at the top of the igloos.

For now, DEQ has asked the Army to produce a plan for ensuring leaking chemical agent don't escape the storage units. The plan, which might include the carbon filters, is due April 30.

The Army did not oppose the DEQ's expanded oversight role.

And the DEQ's request for more oversight doesn't mean the Army hasn't been doing an adequate job of storing those weapons up to now, said Commission Vice Chairman Tony Van Vliet.

The Army, for example, already has plugged drainage holes at the base of the igloos to prevent chemical emissions.

But the state's new role will improve storage and handling guidelines, Van Vliet said.

Depot Commander Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn said the ruling won't change day-to-day depot operations in K-block, where all 7.4 million pounds of chemical weapons are now stored.

"Our general philosophy is that good fences makes good neighbors," Woloszyn said. "We have the same goals" as the DEQ.

The DEQ's expanded oversight role wasn't spurred by the mysterious leak Sept. 15, 1999 that sent 34 depot workers to the hospital, said Wayne Thomas, an official with the state agency.

"Some may ask, why now?" Thomas said. "And some may draw conclusions that this may be linked to other problems. But we've spent the last 10 years working on demilitarization."

Karyn Jones, of GASP, said the citizen's group opposed to the incineration of the stockpile was happy with additional state oversight.

"This is what we have wanted all along," Jones said. "We could never understand why (the weapons) weren't classified as hazardous waste in the first place."

 

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