Disposal of chemical agents and munitions stored at Umatilla Depot Activity, Hermiston, Oregon. Final Phase 1 environmental report

Technical Report · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10155526· OSTI ID:10155526

Zimmerman, G P; Hillsman, E L; Johnson, R O; Miller, R L; Patton, T G; Schoepfle, G M; Tolbert, V R; Feldman, D L; Hunsaker, Jr, D B; Kroodsma, R L; Morrissey, J; Rickert, L W; Staub, W P; West, D C

The Umatilla Depot Activity (UMDA) near Hermiston, Oregon, is one of eight US Army installations in the continental United States where lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions are stored, and where destruction of agents and munitions is proposed under the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP). The chemical agent inventory at UMDA consists of 11.6%, by weight, of the total US stockpile. The destruction of the stockpile is necessary to eliminate the risk to the public from continued storage and to dispose of obsolete and leaking munitions. In 1988 the US Army issued a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for the CSDP that identified on-site disposal of agents and munitions as the environmentally preferred alternative (i.e., the alternative with the least potential to cause significant adverse impacts), using a method based on five measures of risk for potential human health and ecosystem/environmental effects; the effectiveness and adequacy of emergency preparedness capabilities also played a key role in the FPEIS selection methodology. In some instances, the FPEIS included generic data and assumptions that were developed to allow a consistent comparison of potential impacts among programmatic alternatives and did not include detailed conditions at each of the eight installations. The purpose of this Phase 1 report is to examine the proposed implementation of on-site disposal at UMDA in light of more recent and more detailed data than those included in the FPEIS. Specifically, this Phase 1 report is intended to either confirm or reject the validity of on-site disposal for the UMDA stockpile. Using the same computation methods as in the FPEIS, new population data were used to compute potential fatalities from hypothetical disposal accidents. Results indicate that onsite disposal is clearly preferable to either continued storage at UMDA or transportation of the UMDA stockpile to another depot for disposal.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 10155526
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM--11212; ON: DE93013452
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120
540220
540320
ACCIDENTS
AMMUNITION
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
CHEMICALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
IMPLEMENTATION
MILITARY FACILITIES
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
ORDNANCE
OREGON
PROGRESS REPORT
RISK ASSESSMENT
STOCKPILES
STORAGE
WASTE DISPOSAL
WEAPONS