PENDLETON – Meg Capps’ words weren’t very heartening.

“We have encountered some problems,” said Capps, referring to the first of three days of tests of 90 tone alert radios distributed to businesses near the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Capps is the program manager for the Umatilla County Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

During Tuesday’s test, only about half of the radios performed properly, she said. Additional testing has been postponed until further notice, Capps said.

The radios, which should one day be distributed to about 17,000 businesses and residences in communities near the depot, are designed to emit a loud sound should a chemical emergency ever occur. The radios can also be used to listen to the weather station.

On Tuesday, some of the radios failed to emit an alert tone. Some didn’t receive the weather reports. And some performed as they should, leaving Capps to suspect the problem lies in the radios’ programming.

CSEPP will begin recovering the radios today to inspect the programming. Capps hasn’t ruled out an infrastructure problem, which would mean some radios aren’t receiving the signal. That was the case when CSEPP first tested the radios in July.

“If it’s programming, it’s a simple fix,” she said Tuesday evening. “This may delay the distribution. However, that delay may be worth our while because we want this to work the first time.”

Across the Columbia River, Benton County Emergency Management ran into a similar problem after it had distributed 250 such radios last fall. They used a different model radio and discovered programming errors.

Residents in Plymouth and Paterson can exchange their radios and ask questions at two upcoming meetings. The first will be at the Plymouth School on Feb. 1; the second will be at Paterson School at Feb. 7. Both meetings begin at 7 p.m.

Troy Bergland of Benton County Emergency Services said this morning that the exchanges should be completed by mid-March.