History of the Chemical Demilitarization Program

In 1985, Congress directed the Army to destroy the entire U.S. chemical weapons stockpile per the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, which requires signatory countries to completely destroy all chemical agent stockpiles by the year 2007. Since that time an extension has been granted giving the sites until 2012 to destroy the stockpiles. There are eight stockpile sites located in the continental United States and one located in the Pacific on Johnston Atoll.

The incineration facility on Johnston Atoll has completed the disposal of its stockpile of weapons and chemical agent. The Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot and the remaining sites opting for incineration located in Tooele, Utah; Anniston, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas are in varying stages of the process. The Umatilla site is presently scheduled to begin incineration in the summer of 2004.

The UMCD stores about 12% of the original total U.S. stockpile of chemical agent. UMCD stores approximately 3,700 tons (3,380 metric tons) of liquid nerve (GB and VX) and mustard (HD) agents contained in 220,600 individual munitions and storage containers. The munitions and containers in the Umatilla stockpile have been stored there since the early 1960s.

The U.S. Army first submitted a permit application to the DEQ and EPA in 1985. Review and comments on the application from both the DEQ and the EPA eventually resulted in the submittal of a completely revised permit application in 1995. On February 12, 1997, the State of Oregon issued Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)Hazardous Waste Storage and Treatment Permit and an Air Contaminant Discharge Permit to the U.S. Army to build and operate the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF). The final hazardous waste storage and treatment permit approved by the Environmental Quality Commission incorporated several permit conditions that were a direct result of public input. These conditions addressed dioxin emissions, emergency preparedness, and the need for an "on the ground" environmental monitoring program.

The Army awarded the construction and operations contract to Raytheon Demilitarization Company ( now the Washington Demilitarization Company), and construction began in June 1997. The Army Corps of Engineers oversaw construction of the facility. Currently approximately 700 people are employed at the UMCDF site. There are approximately 100 military personnel and 400 civilian workers staffing the UMCD.

DEQ opened a one-person field office in Hermiston in 1994 to provide a local point of contact for the media, local officials, and the public. The technical and permitting staff working on the Umatilla project were at the time located in Bend, Oregon (DEQ's Eastern Region office) as part of the Eastern Region Hazardous Waste Program. After the permits were issued in early 1997, DEQ gradually began increasing staffing levels in the Hermiston office to provide local oversight of UMCDF and UMCD. The Chemical Demilitarization Program is now part of the DEQ's Office of the Director, and currently maintains a staff of six full-time employees.

UMCDF started testing various systems in the facility in December 1999. These "systemization" activities of completed systems were conducted concurrently with construction activities. Construction of the site was completed in June 2001. Trial burns of the incinerators are scheduled to be completed in the early part of 2004.  Incinerator trial burns have occurred for each of the agent campaigns and for secondary wastes (excluding carbon). The liquid incinerator HD rinsate emissions demonstration test was conducted in August 2011.  The UMCDF has not set a date for the metal parts furnace agent-contaminated carbon trial burn. 

Stockpile disposal operations will be complete by 2012.  Treatment of secondary wastes generated by disposal operations and final closure of the facility will probably take several additional years.

In October 2009, the DEQ issued the UMCD a Title V operating permit.  In September 2011, the DEQ issued a renewal RCRA permit for the UMCDF.

 
 

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