Oregon governor visits depot

This story was published Wed, Apr 3, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber told emergency planners Tuesday that he's not comfortable with the Army's recently unveiled plan to neutralize mustard agent with large amounts of water.

He addressed concerns raised by community leaders at the Hermiston Fire Station after a tour of the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Kitzhaber said he'd been assured the Army would not use "whatever higher authority they have to run over us," and that he was not inclined to "change horses" now. The mustard agent is part of the 3,717 tons of deadly chemical agents scheduled to be incinerated starting in February 2003.

"I'm not going to sign up for anything you're uncomfortable with," Kitzhaber said.

Hermiston Mayor Bob Severson said he's heard from lots of folks who are "confused" by a recent proposal by Mario Fiori, the assistant secretary of the Army in charge of the nation's storage and destruction of chemical agents, to neutralize rather than burn the mustard agent. Fiori met with Kitzhaber last week to discuss the possibility. Sixty-three percent of all chemicals stored at the site are mustard agent.

"We are all concerned about that," Severson said.

In addition, Kitzhaber said he's proud of all the work emergency planners have put into preparing for a disaster at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

"You've made some remarkable progress," Kitzhaber said.

Kitzhaber was in town to tour the incinerator. He later joined with members of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program and the Executive Review Panel at the Hermiston Fire Station.

Kitzhaber said he was impressed with the technology of the incinerator and the communities' safety plans, noting that his last visit two years ago was on the heels of a false alarm at the depot that caused panic throughout the community.

"When I was here last, confidence in the community was at an all-time low. People were very, very concerned," he said.

Kitzhaber said emergency planners have made great strides since then in building community confidence but warned the destruction of the nation's stockpile of deadly agents has taken on a new dimension since Sept. 11. And Oregonians in particular ought to expect their next governor to be prepared to handle the issues and to be committed to the project.

"This is a big deal. It's a big deal for our nation. And a big deal for this community. It would be easy for a new governor to miss it, unless he gets personally involved," he said.

Kitzhaber assured the crowd of 50 state and Mid-Columbia officials that he would recommend that gubernatorial candidates pay the depot a visit after the May primary.

And reiterating a promise he made in 2000, Kitzhaber said he would not give approval for agent burns to begin until he was confident that the depot communities were safe. However, he said, he was not prone to continue to put the public at risk by delaying incineration.

"What I'm uncomfortable with is not getting rid of agents. There's a risk either way," he said.

Kitzhaber said he will continue to do whatever he can to get impact aid for Umatilla and Morrow counties. The Department of Defense has turned away repeated requests from the counties for impact aid despite previous pleas from Kitzhaber.

By contrast, Alabama's governor was able to secure $40.5 million in impact aid for Alabama's Calhoun County. Chemical agent burns are to begin in Anniston, Ala., later this year.

Kitzhaber said he didn't want to draw any comparisons between Alabama or Oregon "for a variety of reasons." But he said, "I'm unwilling to blackmail" the Army to secure such funds.

Alabama's governor sued the Army after the Federal Emergency Management Agency refused to hand over money to buy citizens living near the Anniston depot gas masks. Emergency officials recently agreed to release $7 million to buy gas masks for Alabama citizens. And the governor recently dropped an injunction he'd filed against the Army to halt agent burns.

No such funds have been provided to Umatilla or Morrow county citizens. Emergency planners in Morrow County have requested $150,000 to buy air filters for homes bordering the depot, but that money's not in the bank yet. Still, Kitzhaber insisted that Oregon's citizens are not being gypped, as Karyn Jones, a member of G.A.S.P., an anti-incineration group, suggested.

"I want to know why it seems the citizens of Alabama are being provided maximum safety but our citizens are only being given adequate safety," Jones said.

Kitzhaber insisted public safety is the state's primary concern.

"We are not going to sign off on this unless we're confident the public is safe," he said.

Judge Terry Tallman of Morrow County told Kitzhaber that the communication system currently used by emergency responders is inadequate. Tallman said the VHF system is limited in frequencies and is unreliable from one end of the county to the next.

Umatilla County is working to install a 450-megahertz system that everyone hopes will prove more reliable in an emergency. But it's not expected to be completed until February 2003, the same time agent burns are to begin.

"Our first responders have got to be able to communicate," Tallman said.

Kitzhaber said he wants to be satisfied a radio system is going to work before signing off on agent burns.

 

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