Army may accelerate plans to destroy chemical agents

This story was published Wed, Mar 27, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- The Army's evolving plans for destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles could accelerate existing schedules nationwide by five years.

Assistant Secretary of the Army Mario Fiori gave that assessment Tuesday as he met with Umatilla and Morrow County commissioners in Hermiston.

Fiori, who oversees storage and destruction of the nation's chemical stockpiles, proposed changes in destruction of 3,717 tons of chemical agent kept at the depot.

He said the fast-track plan would require cooperation from state agencies and governing bodies. He plans to meet with Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and officials from state environmental agencies in Portland Thursday.

"We want to get rid of the stuff. I think we can do that five years earlier than planned," Fiori said.

He wants the state to allow more munitions to be fed through the incinerator more quickly and thinks a neutralization plant should be built at the site to process 2,340 tons of mustard agent. Sixty-three percent of all the depot's chemical agents are mustard agent stored in 1-ton containers.

Fiori said such changes will require planning. "The devil is in the details," Fiori said.

However, he offered few details when commissioners raised questions about how a new plan would work at Umatilla.

Fiori told commissioners he couldn't predict how much, if any, money would be saved by neutralizing mustard agent with water instead of burning it.

He also said he didn't know how much water it would take or where the water would come from.

"I'll leave that to the technicians," he said.

Terry Tallman, Morrow County judge, noted, "This is going to take a tremendous amount of water .... And there's no facility here to take care of contaminated water. What will you do with it?"

Replied Fiori, "We'll find a company to do it," and he noted there is a facility in Washington that treats wastewater.

Transcripts from the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission indicated that in 1996, when state regulators were trying to determine whether to neutralize or burn the agent, Gil Decker, then assistant secretary of the Army, claimed it would take 90 gallons of water to neutralize one gallon of agent. More recent estimates put that number at 5 to 8 gallons of water.

In 1996 the Army also estimated neutralization would create 27 million gallons of contaminated water. At the time, Decker believed all of Umatilla's chemical stockpile would be destroyed by the end of 2003.

"Including the demilitarization of the facility itself," he said.

Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty asked Fiori why the Army's position on neutralization had changed.

"Research of mustard agent and nerve gas," Fiori said.

At Umatilla, the Army plans to start trial burns in May and agent burns next February. It doesn't expect to finish before 2012. But Fiori said with "regulatory relief," the nation's chemical stockpile can be gone by 2008.

"If we operate the facility here as efficiently as possible, we can save two years on destruction of the mustard agent," he said.

Some Oregon officials had doubts.

"The Army's schedule has always been soft," Doherty said.

Besides, said Don Barclay, project manager for the Chemical Demilitarization project, it only takes a year to destroy the entire stockpile of mustard agent by burning.

"I want it destroyed now," Fiori replied. "The objective here is to get rid of the risk."

County commissioners also fear building the neutralization plant would be disruptive.

"If we have two plants running at one time, where would the people working at those facilities live?" Tallman asked. And, he added, what would the communities do with the empty houses once the plants closed down?

"That's a valid issue," Fiori said.

But don't plan on any impact aid, he warned: "The Department of Defense would not be open to that discussion."

It'll be up to the state and local community to decide whether to speed up the plan, Fiori said.

Former Mayor Frank Harkenrider wanted to stick with incineration.

"The majority of people here want to get rid of that stuff. The quicker the better. Incineration is the best way to go," Harkenrider said.

Wayne Thomas, administrator for the chemical demilitarization program for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, also expressed doubts.

"I didn't hear anything today that would reduce the risk to the public any better than the plan we already have in place," he said.

Moreover, he was concerned about the message.

"The constant theme of Fiori's remarks was that in order to accelerate incineration we need to improve what we are doing. I'm not sure that's the message we want to send," Thomas said.

State regulatory agencies already expect that the Army is doing its best to destroy the stockpile as quickly and safely as possible, Thomas said.

But, he said, if the Army proves it can safely burn more agent than the 40 rockets per hour the current permit allows, "Why would we not want to do that?"

But, he added, "We are not going to speed things up if it compromises public safety or even worker safety."

After meeting with county commissioners, Fiori met in a closed session with leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Doherty was refused permission to attend.

"I don't know why they don't want me there," he said.

He said he was disturbed that Fiori's meetings with regulatory agencies and the governor also are closed.

"I can tell you this, whatever is taking place at those meetings is going to affect us -- the 27,000 people in the immediate response zone. People that I'm responsible and answerable to. I think the Army could be a little bit more open," Doherty said.

Tribal members did not return calls about the session.

 

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