Pentagon halts depot closure – East Oregonian
Posted: Friday, June 17, 2011 1:05 pm | Updated: 1:46 pm, Fri Jun 17, 2011.
Representatives of the Umatilla Chemical Depot Local Reuse Authority are mounting an attack to a recently-announced Pentagon decision to keep the Umatilla Chemical Depot open.
In an emergency meeting Wednesday at the Nixyáawii Governance Center, LRA representatives decided to fight. They want to continue the depot closure process as planned. The LRA involves representatives of Umatilla and Morrow counties, the ports of Umatilla and Morrow and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Although federal officials have released no formal notice to civilians, Lt. Col. Kris Perkins, commander of the Umatilla Chemical Depot, learned June 2 it will remain an active U.S. Army base.
“This is nonsense to lose all this work and planning,” said George Anderson, a Hermiston attorney who has been involved with depot closure plans for 20 years. “This egg needs to be put back together.”
The 2005 legislation authorizing the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission expires Sept. 15. The BRAC has provided funding for planning the depot’s future, but it will go away about two months before depot personnel expect to complete disposing of chemical weapons.
Tom Lederle, a BRAC representative speaking from Washington by telephone, told LRA members the Department of Defense thought weapons destruction at Umatilla would be completed before the BRAC expired.
URS Corp., the demilitarization contractor, faced some obstacles early on, he said, and was unable to maintain the original weapons destruction schedule.
Gary Anderson, demilitarization site project manager, said 770 ton containers of mustard remain to be destroyed. The contractor should complete the job by the end of November.
“If we don’t complete the process by Sept. 15, the Army will not be authorized to conduct demolition and clean up the site,” Lederle said. “It means Umatilla will be an active installation just like any other active installation.”
That means the 20 years of planning and more than $1 million that’s been spent to prepare for the depot’s future may have been wasted.
Carla McLane, Morrow County planner, shared her frustration with the decision.
“To have the rug pulled out from under us at 11:59 is wrong,” she said.
With BRAC disappearing Sept. 15, the Army would be left to declare the property surplus and engage the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean up the agent-contaminated buildings and equipment. The General Services Administration then would search for a new owner or owners for the depot property.
“Nobody’s going to buy it,” said George Anderson. “It’s just going to sit there.”
The first ownership opportunity would go to other military uses, then to other federal agencies, Lederle said.
“The Oregon National Guard could put in a claim for all or part of it,” he said, adding that the CTUIR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make claims as well.
“What about the plan the plan the Army has adopted?” LRA Chairman Bill Hansell asked, referring to the work the LRA completed in the past two years. “What happens to that plan?”
Lederle responded, “We wouldn’t necessarily have to follow it.”
The plan, which the LRA completed in July 2010, designates sections of the depot to the Oregon National Guard, the USFWS, the Oregon Department of Transportation and the two port districts.
Angry with the turn of events, the LRA decided Wednesday to send letters to Robert Gates, secretary of defense, the secretary of the Army and Oregon’s congressional delegation. They also plan to contact a Washington, D.C., consulting firm run by former Pentagon officials.
Scott Fairley of Pendleton, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s liaison in the area, and Hansell plan to encourage the governor to write letters as well.