Bomb burning around the corner

This story was published Mon, Apr 16, 2001

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA - Slowly, stealthily and steadily, Washington Demilitarization Co. inches toward the day the first sarin-filled bomb will be incinerated at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Construction on the plant is 96 percent complete, with just a few electrical wires left to be run.

But where does a contractor find employees qualified to destroy the 3,717 tons of deadly chemical-filled weapons stored at the depot?

Ironically, the best bet is to pluck them off an ancient volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, about 825 miles southwest of Hawaii.

The Oregon incinerator will employ about 600 people, and 100 of them will come from Johnston Island, where the world's first full-scale incinerator plant was built to destroy chemical weapons.

The company is relying on the experience and expertise of those employees to get the job done safely, as they did on the 625-acre island.

The last rounds of ammunition stored at the atoll were destroyed in November. Now, many of its employees are relocating to the Columbia Basin.

Others are just coming home, such as Loren Sharp, now the depot's project manager, who spent more than three years on the island.

Sharp worked at Hanford before accepting the position at Johnston Island more than five years ago.

He left his family in the Tri-Cities while he set off for the desolate group of islands known as Johnston Atoll.

Workers at the island are not only sequestered, but they also work long hours, Sharp said.

"We worked at least 60 hours a week for eight weeks, then had two weeks off," Sharp said.

During leave, most would escape to Oahu, Hawaii, or to the continental United States.

It wasn't the life for everybody, said Phil Harness, the depot's plant manager.

"There are some guys who got off the plane and knew it wasn't for them," Harness said. "They weren't around long."

Harness arrived in Umatilla from the island just a few weeks ago and is still finding his land legs.

The island sits like the crown of a tortoise's shell peeking out of the vast, turquoise Pacific Ocean, just 7 feet above sea level.

"It rains salt water, and storms pass over you like you aren't even there," Harness said.

Joe Gonzales, the depot's assistant operations manager, said he'll never forget the hurricanes that halted operations on the island in 1994 and 1999.

"Everybody was evacuated by military planes to Honolulu," Gonzales said. "Evacuated to a beach in Honolulu. ... It wasn't that bad."

The remote islands were accidentally discovered Sept. 2, 1796, by Capt. Joseph Pierpont, who grounded his ship there.

The atoll consists of four coral islands: Johnston Island, Sand Island, North Island and East Island.

That makes for great diving, one of Harness' favorite pastimes. There also were other recreational opportunities to be found on the island.

There is a nine-hole golf course, a small marina with sailboats, a chapel and outdoor movie theater, plenty of fishing and even a place to race remote cars.

Those were the only private cars on the island, said Jim Snyder, the depot's systemization manager.

"There was one bus that took people from their quarters to work and around the island, and there were company work trucks, but nobody had cars," Snyder said.

The island was used as a refueling point for airplanes and submarines during World War II, as a base for airlift operations during the Korean War and to test atomic weapons in the 1960s.

The barracks built by the military became housing for demilitarization employees, who may have thought they were in basic training, at first glance.

"Actually, I think the barracks were better in basic training," Snyder said.

The workers also shared small apartments and semi-private dorms.

Job title had some effect on where workers lived, but many times, it just depended on what bed was open when they arrived, Sharp said.

Meals were served in military-style mess halls.

It may not have been the perfect working environment, but it had its benefits, said Ed Duplak, the depot's project coordinator.

"It was like a very small community," Duplak said. "You'll never be as close to co-workers as we were there. A camaraderie develops."

And that camaraderie has found new roots at the Umatilla site.

"We see a lot of familiar faces, and that's nice," Duplak said.

Construction began in 1985 to create the Johnston Atoll Chemical Disposal System, which has been used as a prototype for the other chemical weapons destruction facilities in Umatilla; Tooele, Utah; Pueblo, Colo.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Anniston, Ala.; Newport, Ind.; and Edgewood, Md.

During the destruction of more than 13,000 land mines filled with deadly nerve gas, the Army, state and environmental agencies kept a close watch, making sure the project was being done as safely and effectively as possible.

Sharp said that during the Johnston Island incineration project, there were no chemical agent spills.

He hopes the experience his Johnston Island personnel bring to the Umatilla site will keep things in Oregon safe as well.

"We will be here to train, teach and mentor," Sharp said. "Now, we have the experience and understanding and will be much better suited to running this plant."

 

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