Citizens group wants depot answers

This story was published Tue, Dec 17, 2002

By Karen Spears Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- Bob Flournoy hopes people concerned about recent mishaps at the Umatilla Chemical Depot show up for the Citizens Advisory Commission's meeting on Thursday.

"We have asked Washington Demilitarization Co. and the Army to tell us what the hell is going on, to explain all the goofs that have been taking place," said Flournoy, chairman of the commission.

Washington Demilitarization is the contractor the Army hired to destroy the 3,717 tons of chemical weapons stored 30 miles south of the Tri-Cities.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday at Good Shepherd Medical Center, Conference Room 1, 610 N.W. 11th St., Hermiston.

Flournoy said he's received numerous phone calls from people worried about a recent incident in which a lab worker dropped a tray of diluted sarin vials at the Army lab inside of K-block, the facility where the deadly chemical nerve agent is stored.

Thirteen vials broke and spilled. Three lab workers donned gas masks, stripped their clothes and were scrubbed as precautionary measures. Subsequent blood tests revealed no sarin exposure. Army officials said the incident posed no risk to workers, the public or the environment.

"Even though the vials were not hazardous, it's the principle of the thing," Flournoy said. "There's no room for any mistakes at this plant."

Karyn Jones said she was horrified by the sarin vial incident. Jones is a spokeswoman for GASP, the anti-incineration group suing the Army and state regulators to halt the burning of the munitions.

"It's about time the citizens advisory group got upset," Jones said. "We've been concerned all along. We think it shows how easily these accidents can happen."

People have been equally upset about recent reports of a civilian security guard at the depot who accidentally shot himself with a pistol, Flournoy said.

"What the Army and Washington Demilitarization consider to be a minor incident is never a minor incident in the public's eye," he added.

Nor in the eyes of federal regulators. But, unfortunately, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no jurisdiction, said Carl Halgren, area director.

Halgren said the Army is only required to notify OSHA when three or more workers are hospitalized. Three workers were treated by depot medical staff when the glass vials burst, but the workers were treated on-site. They never were hospitalized.

Robert Shannon, 22, the injured security guard was hospitalized overnight at Good Shepherd Medical Center, but that incident also falls under the three-person rule, Halgren said.

Flournoy urged any citizens concerned about recent happenings at the Umatilla Chemical Depot to show up for Thursday's meeting.

"I'd surely like to see people show up. It's in their best interest. When you've got mishaps like this occurring, I think we ought to stay on the Army's back," Flournoy said.

 

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