Depot radio installation postponed

This story was published Wed, Nov 12, 2003

By Kathleen Gilstrap
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA - Installation of a 450-megahertz radio system for police and other emergency workers in Umatilla and Morrow counties will be delayed about two months.

Emergency Manager Meg Capps with Umatilla County said the company that makes the microwave dish equipment moved its production plant from Texas to Mexico, which created the delay.

Even with the delay, Capps said she expects the radio system to be operating before incineration begins.

"That would be ideal, and that seems to be the way it's working out," she said.

The radio system will allow state-of-the-art communication between police agencies and emergency workers in the event of a chemical release at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Munitions and containers, filled with 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents, are stored at the depot. The weapons and nerve agents will be incinerated, possibly beginning next summer.

The radio system, which also will be used in other emergencies, was ordered in August, with delivery expected in mid-October. The $9 million system was supposed to be working in March, but now that most likely will happen in late spring, Capps said. The system is being paid for by federal dollars funneled through the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, or CSEPP.

Members of the CSEPP Review Panel recommended in September that incineration be delayed until the radio system is operating.

Since then, depot officials announced that destruction of the chemicals probably won't begin until next summer anyway because of state permit issues.

A seven-member panel of area police, fire and dispatch officials was formed last month to decide how the system will be used, Capps said.

 

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