Depot officials warn of more delays

This story was published Wed, Mar 6, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- Army officials at the Umatilla Chemical Depot warned Tuesday that Oregon's stubbornness over "inconsequential" wastes such as hundreds of tons of contaminated carbon and assorted other hazardous materials threatens further delays in burning 3,717 tons of deadly chemical agent stored at the site.

The comments, part of a letter signed by the depot's top officials, comes just days before Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission is to meet in Portland to decide if the Army can press ahead with its plan to begin trial burns at the depot in May.

"It should be remembered that the risk posed to the public by secondary waste is inconsequential when compared to that of agent storage. We think these issues don't warrant schedule slippage because they can be addressed in another manner," the letter stated.

The so-called secondary wastes include an estimated 500 hundred tons of agent-contaminated carbon and dunnage, such as wood pallets, packaging cases, paper, cleaning rags, small metal items such as tools and machine parts, plastic, glass and carbon filters used at the depot.

The incinerator that is supposed to burn the depot's aging weapons originally was to include a dunnage furnace, but those plans were scrapped after a similar plant proved ineffective.

The letter was signed by Lt. Col. Fred Pellissier, depot commander; Don Barclay, project manager for the incinerator; and Loren Sharp, project manager for the Washington Demilitarization Co.

Officials with Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality don't appear swayed by the Army's warnings of additional delays in dealing with the wastes.

"The DEQ and the commission have been hammering on the Army for the past three years to deal with their secondary waste issue," said Sue Oliver, a chemical demilitarization specialist for the state environmental agency.

Environmental officials are troubled the Army may be putting schedule ahead of public safety. In a letter dated Feb. 8, Wayne Thomas, administrator for the state environmental agency, told James Bacon, program manager for the Army's Chemical Demilitarization program, that he was worried the Army is compromising public safety.

Thomas said Tuesday, "We don't want the kind of legacy waste Hanford has."

The Army initially was granted a permit to burn the deadly chemical agents in June 1997. But since that time the Army has requested and received permission for 134 permit modifications, requiring 4,866 engineering changes, Oliver said.

So the state agency wants the Army to put in writing what it intends to do with its secondary wastes before the state Environmental Quality Commission allows any trial burns to begin at the incinerator.

And they've asked the commission to make that a requirement before allowing the Army to move ahead with trial burns.

The Army wants to begin trial burns in May and destruction of chemical agents in February 2003.

"Our concern is the Army's focus is on chemical agent, and rightly so; it's the most toxic. But we don't want them to lose sight of the importance of dealing with secondary waste," Oliver said.

And, she added, this is one situation where, "Final authority rests with the state of Oregon, not the U.S. Army."

 

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