Umatilla Voices - the Depot
Well you know, I lived here all my life
and I've never been worried about the explosives or the gas out there.
It was a boom for the community. Especially back in the 40s, we had
nothing here. 1909, when the Bureau of Reclamation put all of the
projects in the United States, Hermiston and Umatilla we did good
in those years because we had the federal workers come in. . . it's
kind of funny, years later WWII, here comes the depot, then in 1948
or '46 they started McNary, here comes the federal back again.
Sam
Nobles, Umatilla resident, 1999
The risk of something happening is extremely,
extremely low, but that doesn't mean there's no risk whatsoever.
Lt. Col. Martin A. Jacoby, Depot commander, 1998
It was established when we came here in
1956, and other than detonating thousands of rounds of heavy ammunition,
there hasn't been anything to adversely affect Umatilla. . . they
have some pretty bad chemicals, dangerous chemicals, for chemical
warfare, that they've had since I guess, World War II. . . and they're
in the process now of building an incinerator.
Roy Gunsolley,
Umatilla resident, 1999
When I first came to work here they were
using rabbits as the monitors. They would actually take a rabbit and
stick it inside the igloo. After a few minutes, they'd open the door
and if that rabbit was still okay then, it was okay. Because they
were a lot more sensitive to the agent than a human would be. So we
went from there to what they call gross level detectors, which soldiers
actually use, or they're trained to use out in the field. . . But
it doesn't detect at real low levels. We also had what you call a
bubbler, which is something that they'd use in the laboratory that
actually draws agent out of the igloo, and then it's run through this
bubbling system and you get an answer like twenty minutes to a half
an hour later whether or not there's agent in there. So that wasn't
very effective. Now they actually use Hewlitt Packard computers, and
gas chromatography. . . technically they can detect to zero. . . Anyway,
it's real efficient now. . . And you know, we all live in the community
so we're going to do everything that we can to keep it safe while
those chemicals are here. . .
Donna Fuzi, Army Depot administrator, 1999
I think it's the best thing that ever happened,
to get rid of that stuff. Because I have no fear of it, but at the
same time I have a respect for it. . . I've been to Toele twice, been
back to Washington D.C., and visited with James Watt too, and when
I get this article [in the East Oregonian, March 1999] I'm
gonna send this with a strong letter back there saying, a year ago
when I was back there. . .we were assured of all these things. . .
. those complaints haven't been addressed yet. . . . we've got the
decon trailers, but nothing to pull them. We've got protective clothing
for our police and fire department, so they're stored over in the
depot. So what do you do? You run to the depot if there's a leak out there!
Mayor George Hash, 1999
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