Soldiers boost depot security

This story was published Sat, Sep 29, 2001

By Wendy Culverwell
Herald staff writer

A company of 100 to 200 soldiers based in Western Washington has been deployed to the Umatilla Chemical Depot to boost security for the thousands of tons of aging nerve and mustard agents stored there.

Jim Hacket, spokesman for the Hermiston depot, said the regular Army soldiers from Fort Lewis are providing added security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The soldiers arrived Tuesday and will remain for an indefinite period.

Their presence means the facility's regular staff members, who had been pulled to help with security, can return to operating the depot and completing preparations for incinerating the aging chemicals.

For security reasons, Hacket said he could not identify the company name or say exactly how the group is operating at the depot.

Hacket sought to reassure a nervous community that safety is the prime objective. "Our sole mission is the safety and security of chemical ammunition," he said.

Hacket also added the depot remains on track to begin incineration of the weapons in February 2003.

The munitions were first brought to the site west of Hermiston in 1962. Conventional ammunition has not been held there since the early 1990s.

Similar security forces have been dispatched to the Army's other chemical depots in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and Utah.

The security measures seem to be doing little to reassure the depot's jittery neighbors.

Diane Collier, who sells sporting goods, guns and military surplus gear at Columbia Outdoor & Surplus on Hermiston's Main Street, said she's seen a run on Israeli gas masks since the terrorist attacks. Buyers cleaned out her supply of six dozen, the first time that's ever happened. There are none left in either adult or child sizes, and the filters also are sold out.

Collier contacted suppliers and learned the story is the same everywhere. She doesn't know when she'll be able to restock the masks or her other most popular item these days, American flags.

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, or about 14 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile.

Earlier this week, Umatilla County took the lead among area agencies to purchase emergency radios for CSEPP, the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Plan. The county placed a $5 million order for 450 of the radios needed so emergency crews can communicate in case there's an accidental release of the chemical weapons stored at the depot.

 

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