Depot unlikely terrorist target, group says

This story was published Tue, Feb 11, 2003

By Karen Spears Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- The idea of terrorists targeting any of the nation's depot sites appears unlikely, even after 9/11.

There are just too many other easier targets to hit, said Amy Smithson, a senior associate with the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group devoted to international peace and security.

"These chemical munition facilities are well-secured. I'd be more worried about a terrorist attack on a chemical manufacturing plant," she said.

But just how plausible is it that some of the rockets could auto-ignite at any moment and blow up a storage igloo at one of the sites and endanger a community, as Army officials have routinely suggested? Or some freak incident, such as an earthquake or lightning strike, cause the munitions to blow?

"The risks of general storage of chemical weapons are small compared to risks associated with other types of societal accidents," said Delbert Bunch, a former deputy director for the nation's chemical demilitarization program.

Perhaps the risk is as likely as an antiquated courthouse collapsing because of an earthquake.

That's just what Multnomah County (Ore.) Circuit Court Judge Michael Marcus claimed last fall during a trial between the Army and environmental watchdog groups.

"The risk of storage is equal to being struck by lightning on the third Thursday of December. I'm in greater danger in this building, if there was an earthquake," Marcus said. The judge addressed his remarks to the Army's attorneys who were arguing that the aging stockpile poses a great risk to neighboring communities and needs to be incinerated as quickly as possible.

Determining the risk the stockpile poses is a tricky business, said Dennis Murphey, project administrator for Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

"There's a low probability of any explosion happening, but it's a low probability with high consequences," Murphey said. "Our job is to do everything within our power to make sure the probability remains very, very low."

 

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