Regional Choices:Incinerating the Past?
By the Army's own definition then, [the
nerve gas] was sort of a garbage - a very lethal but non-essential
garbage -- looking for a home. Since it frightens the Okinawans, let's
dump it in Oregon. . . . These terms ought to be unacceptable to Oregonians
-- and the fact that they are unacceptable is supported by the tremendous
wave of revulsion that has swept across the state.
Oregon Governor
Tom McCall, 1970
Above. The $1.2 billion Umatilla
Chemical Incineration plant under construction, April, 1999. The plant
is located next to K-block where 2,635 containers holding one ton each
of mustard blister agents, and more than 155,000 rocket-bombs and projectiles
filled with nerve agent VX are stored. Below. The CSEPP program set up
this Emergency Preparedness display in the Hermiston Public Library in
1999.
Photos by Donna Sinclair
In the 1970s President Richard Nixon and Governor Tom McCall of Oregon argued
over placing chemical weapons at the Umatilla Army Depot. Nixon won, and
today Umatilla and Morrow County residents grapple with the consequences.
The Umatilla Depot, one of eight U.S. chemical weapons sites, contains
12% of the nation's chemical weapons. Others are stored at Johnson Atoll
in the Pacific Ocean. The army says that the old weapons present an increasing
storage risk. Since 1984, officials have discovered 113 "leakers."
A 1985 Congressional order and a 1997 international treaty mandate their
destruction. The army
has chosen on-site incineration as the safest disposal method. But some
environmental groups oppose incineration claiming that an alternative,
lower-tech process that neutralizes the chemicals without burning them,
would be preferable.
As plans for incineration developed, a federally-funded public outreach office in Hermiston opened in 1996 to reassure and educate the public. Emergency plans exist in the case of nerve agent "leakers." Sirens, radios, and emergency kits are supposed to protect residents; however many have not received them. In 1999, Mayor George Hash pointed out while trying to obtain "Shelter in Place" kits for a Headstart Building in Umatilla, that "these things never get attended to. It's always we're gonna do it tomorrow. . . . And those kids are taken down there. . . for the day, with no protection."
Until
recently, most residents were not fearful of the nearby depot. It provided
jobs, and so has the incineration site - nearly 800. But recent events
have left some citizens wondering. On September 15, 1999, more than 30
people unexpectedly became ill while in the building that will dismantle
and destroy the chemical weapons. No one knows what was in the "wall
of fumes" faced by workers as they attempted to leave the building.
"I think it was chemical agent," said one worker whose fingers
were blistered and lung capacity affected. Bomb threats, too, plagued
the demilitarization site - three within two weeks in February 2000. Such
threats are not taken lightly, as nearly 4,000 tons of chemical weapons
are stored next to the incinerator plant - scheduled to begin test burns
in January 2001.
MayorGeorge Hash discusses the impact of the chemical depot in Umatilla
Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program
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