HERMISTON – The state Department of Environmental Quality was frustrated that only a few “average Joes” attended a three-hour meeting Wednesday to discuss the storage of hazardous waste at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

But when questioned, even Program Administrator Wayne Thomas was hard pressed to come up with pressing reasons for the public to be too concerned.

At stake are two permit modifications for storing hazardous waste, such as left-over paint and secondary waste, the materials created from the incineration of munitions. The meeting, mired in technical terms, was well attended by the U.S. Army, Morrow County Commissioners and the press, but few laypeople were present to hear why the DEQ offered the preliminary meeting. A formal comment period will be offered in the winter.

“What we’re trying to do is be more proactive and involve the communities,” Thomas said.

The meeting was an early part of the process that the DEQ will use for determining whether to support the permit modifications. A final review and possible approval won’t happen until spring or summer 2001, Thomas said.

The term “storage” proved to be the confusing aspect of the meeting. Some 58 igloos in J Block – just south of K Block, where the depot’s chemical weapons are stored – may be reserved for the storage of secondary waste until it can be destroyed or moved off the base. Nick Speed, a DEQ storage issues expert, gave the example that after GB rockets are destroyed, the carbon filters in the chimneys would need to be replaced.

If the next group of weapons to be destroyed contained VX, then the GB filters would need to be stored until the next time weapons with GB are destroyed. Only one agent at a time can be destroyed.

Speed said that other issues must be inspected before the permit can go forward. Currently the DEQ is looking at securing the igloos, which have open drains and vents.

Though not all of the 58 igloos may ever be used, the prospect raised the ire of officials from Morrow County. Others were frustrated that even with incineration set to begin in early 2002, officials have yet to figure out how to dispose of eight types of waste.

The trick is that if the DEQ doesn’t let the Army begin disposing of the depot’s 3,717 tons of chemical weapons until a plan for the ultimate disposal of each type of waste is found, the weapons will need to be stored longer. Because the weapons have been stored for more than 30 years and are slowly degrading, officials and the public are eager to begin incineration.

“We were sold on this (incineration) as a proven technology and yet we keep seeing these permit modifications,” said Morrow County Commissioner Dan Brosnan, referring to the more than 80 permit modifications for the project since it began in 1997. “This leads to a fair amount of skepticism on our part.”

Some in the audience questioned why the secondary wastes, such as protective suits for workers and wood pallets for munitions, can’t be destroyed in a fifth incinerator, which has yet to be constructed. The Army is hoping to not build the so-called dunnage incinerator, which the state requires, and instead destroy the wastes in the other four furnaces.

Thomas added that even with the dunnage incinerator, the depot will have wastes that will need to be shipped to landfills once treated or put through the incinerators a second time. None of this waste will be contaminated, he added.

Thomas said the state won’t let the Army close the base until all wastes, including secondary wastes, are disposed of. Depot Commander Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn backed up the statement.

“The Army is not going to leave this base with that waste here,” he said.