Oregon OKs burning waste of nerve weapon disposal

06/20/2008

By JEFF BARNARD / Associated Press

The Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Eastern Oregon can resume burning protective suits, contaminated rags and other secondary waste.

The state Environmental Quality Commission voted Thursday to accept a risk assessment report that found continuing to burn the nerve agents, poisonous gases and their associated wastes at the Umatilla Chemical Depot poses minimal health and environmental risks.

It decided the best way to do that was to run the material through the existing incinerators — rather than build a new one, adopt a new process or ship the materials elsewhere.

The Army's contractor voluntarily suspended disposal of the secondary waste after a watchdog group known as GASP won a court judgment that there had not been enough public discussion of an earlier decision.

Bruce Hope, toxicologist for the Department of Environmental Quality, told the commission that the department's risk assessment included the results of 10 years of monitoring, which had found no ecological hazards or harm to humans.

Richard Duval, DEQ administrator of the chemical weapons disposal program, said a special incinerator designed to handle the secondary waste was never built after problems were discovered with similar ones at other incinerators.

A new problem facing commissioners is how to deal with mercury contamination in 430 of the 2,600 one-ton containers of mustard agent, which was produced in 1945 and 1946.

The Army stored the mustard agent in old containers that had not been properly cleaned out after being used to store another type of nerve agent, which was made with a mercury catalyst.

The commission is to decide in August whether the best way to deal with the mercury is upgrade the current incinerators with filters, adopt a chemical and biological neutralization process, or a use a new technique of exploding the material in a containment vessel.