Oregon must OK depot burn

This story was published Sat, Mar 9, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

PORTLAND -- Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission flexed its oversight muscle Friday by telling Army officials that they will not be allowed to begin burning chemical weapons agents at the Umatilla Chemical Depot without prior approval.

Under the commission's ruling in Portland, the Army must have a plan by Sept. 1 for destroying incinerator wastes, or the state will not approve a burn permit.

The unanimous vote modifies the burn permit the Army obtained from the state in June 1997. The ruling requires the Army to obtain written permission from the DEQ before test burns and from the Environmental Quality Commission prior to starting actual agent burns.

The Army hopes to begin trial burns at the Hermiston depot May 25 and agent burns in February 2003.

Commission members expressed impatience with the Army's efforts to develop a plan for disposing of contaminated carbon filters, masks, and agent-contaminated suits, tools and equipment.

The Army has had 3 1/2 years to develop a plan for handling wastes from burning the 3,717 tons of deadly chemical weapons stored at the Umatilla site. Yet, commissioner Melinda Eden said the Army repeatedly has failed to
produce such a plan.

The incineration process could produce about 700 tons of contaminated carbon, said Wayne Thomas, the state Department of Environmental Quality's administrator for the chemical demilitarization program.

The secondary waste problem is not "inconsequential" as the Army described in a letter to the commission, said Eden. The letter said the Army opposed any regulations on the secondary waste because they would prevent it from moving ahead with a tight schedule for burning.

But, Eden said, "We would not be here doing this if the Army had kept its commitments."

Additionally, Thomas told the commission the Army has collected 40 years worth of contaminated materials that now are stored in 55-gallon barrels in different igloos at the depot. Thomas said some of those discarded suits, tools, masks, etc., may be contaminated by more than one chemical agent.

"That stuff's being stored in drums in a bunker?" asked commissioner Tony Van Vliet.

"Yes," Thomas replied.

"Well, Happy New Year!" Van Vliet quipped.

Sue Oliver, a state chemical demilitarization specialist, said there are hundreds of such drums. She questioned how well the Army has documented what kind of wastes are in the drums.

"We need to know what they are going to do with it. They can't start dumping out drums of God knows what all," Oliver said.

Army officials told the commission they are still working on a plan to dispose of the contaminated carbon. Tests of the disposal system have been repeatedly delayed.

Destroying the carbon wastes has been a problem for Army officials, who've been working to clean up a chemical agent site at the Johnston Atoll chemical weapons incinerator site, 750 miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.

Eden said commissioners are frustrated the Army was coming to them at the "eleventh hour" still lacking a proven plan to safely destroy the contaminated carbon.

"We've been accused of delaying the process when we've been asking for assurances" for the past three years, she said.

The Army has the option of appealing the commission's ruling, but Umatilla depot spokeswoman Mary Binder said she didn't think it will do so.

 

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