Plan to ship depot waste water not embraced by all

This story was published Tue, Aug 13, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- Environmental regulators fear the Army is trying to renege on its plan for handling waste water produced from incinerating chemical weapons.

The Army's recent suggestion that it's more efficient to ship waste water off the Umatilla Chemical Depot site is just further deceitfulness by the Army, said Wayne Thomas, program administrator for the state's environmental office.

"This is just another broken promise they've made to the community," Thomas said. "They told us they would not be shipping the waste water off-site."

The Army constructed a brine reduction unit as part of the incinerator facility. The system is designed to process the chemically tainted water until the only remaining residue is a salt containing trace metals.

The Army notified state regulators earlier this year that it would not process the liquid wastes from the current test burns of other chemicals because the brine unit was not yet operating. Burning of chemical weapons agents is not scheduled to begin until next year.

But Army officials have since suggested that chemically contaminated water generated by burning Sarin, VX and mustard gas also might be trucked through the Tri-Cities. The Army has contracted with a facility in Kent, south of Seattle, to treat the tainted water.

Technically, the Army's permit does not prohibit it from shipping the waste water off-site, Thomas said.

Don Barclay, project manager for the Army, was in a meeting with officials from the Department of Defense and the Board of Trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation on Monday and did not return Herald phone calls.

Thomas estimated the brine reduction facility cost more than $20 million. He also estimated it would take 20 tanker trucks a day to handle waste water once the Army starts incinerating agent.

Thomas said the expectation always has been that the Army would treat its own wastes.

"They have the technology on-site to treat waste water, but they've failed to put out the right resources to effectively do that," he said.

The Army maintains the waste water that will be produced by the incineration process is less of a hazard than other chemicals currently being shipped through Umatilla County.

But that's not the point, Thomas said.

"We're talking about shipping a huge volume of liquid vs. shipping the salt residue," he said. "That means significantly many more tanker trucks on the road."

In a February letter to Barclay, Thomas said, "The department is extremely concerned that this type of change represents a shift in priorities for the U.S. Army and its contractors."

Thomas wrote it appeared the Army was more worried about keeping to a schedule than "on fulfilling commitments made previously to the state of Oregon and its citizens."

Chief Gary Burke of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also expressed dismay over the thought of the waste water being shipped off the depot.

In a letter sent in May to the Environmental Quality Commission, Burke said he was "gravely concerned" by the Army's suggestion that it might ship more waste water off-site.

Burke said "a promise of no off-site shipment of liquid waste has been verbally stated numerous times to our Board of Trustees," by the Army and environmental regulators.

"I would remind you that the Confederated Tribes represent a culture where the spoken word is as important as the written word," Burke admonished.

"Clearly the risk of environmental contamination is increased if liquid waste, rather than solid waste, is accidentally spilled."

Karyn Jones, a member of GASP, an anti-incineration group, said the proposal raises questions about whether the Army can be trusted. "We have no reason to believe they won't break other promises they've made to the community, such as leaving a legacy of waste like Hanford," she said.

Army officials are supposed to give an accounting of their waste water plans to the Oregon Chemical Demilitarization Citizen Advisory Commission at its meeting Thursday. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Good Shepherd Health Care System.

 

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