Army replaces key demilitarization personnel

 Hermiston Herald
Jan. 24, 2003:
By Frank Lockwood (F. Ellsworth Lockwood)
Staff writer

In a national shakeup of chemical demilitarization, several top Army officials, some of whom visited Hermiston last year, are being replaced, and agencies are being combined.

Amidst the changes, anti-incineration groups, now disillusioned with last year's leadership, have disclaimed Assistant Secretary of the Army Mario Fiori, welcoming the Army's decision earlier this month to remove oversight of chemical demilitarization from Fiori.

Resistance to a Umatilla-style CSEPP program was a factor: Intercepted e-mail revealed that Fiori had planned to force such a program into effect as part of the federal agenda for Alabama, but his plan backfired.

Only a year ago, oversight of chemical demilitarization was moved to the Army's Environmental Office, which was under Fiori. Incineration opponents had hoped at the time that they would make progress in their anti-incineration agenda with Fiori in charge. The Army had charged Fiori with the mission of building strong, collaborative partnerships with appropriate Federal agencies, State and local regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders.

"Our objective is to streamline management of the Chemical Demilitarization Program by eliminating ... layers of oversight, clarifying responsibility, and improving accountability," the 2001 orders read. And Chemical Weapons Working Group welcomed Fiori in pubic announcements as he took over programs. Now, however, unhappy over what they view as too-little public input, too-secret information, the CWWG have changed their opinion.

"We thought putting de-mil in the Army Environmental Office made sense at the time," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, "but we didn't count on a management style based on covert operations and the total exclusion of public participation."

Williams sided with Alabama officials after, in October, news came out of the Army's plan to "challenge" Anniston, Alabama emergency planners to join in a series of monthly, emergency training sessions. Via e-mail, Army officials had discussed ways to implement a Umatilla-style CSEPP readiness
program.

Since then, a major leadership shakedown has occurred. On Jan. 15, the secretary of the Army ordered the chemical weapons disposal program moved out from under Fiori and the Army's Environmental Office, back under back under Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology where it had been a year earlier.

Representing another break from the past, the Office of Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology will manage both storage and disposal. In the past those were handled by separate entities. Both will soon be under Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr., and Army Materiel Command Gen. Paul Kern, a four-star general.

E-mail War Shakes up Program
In a much publicized E-mail War or, as a Birmingham News opinion called it, the "perverse public relations war," e-mail messages revealed wide a difference of opinions between federal emergency managers and elected Alabama officials concerning how they should approach emergency training.

The rift widened as the e-mail became public, revealing what appeared to many to be a plan to embarrass the Anniston, Ala., CSEPP community into monthly emergency drills whether they wanted them or not.

The e-mail war, reported by newspapers including Birmingham News, Anniston Star, and Tri-City Herald, was, ostensibly, an attempt to document the Army's efforts to help the Anniston community prepare for an accident at the incinerator. E-mail circulated by CWWG cited Lawrence Skelly, a special assistant with the Pentagon, as having written, "This (CSEPP) model has worked exceptionally well at the Umatilla site and we believe it will work in Anniston too."

But critics described it instead as a plot to discredit recalcitrant local officials, and Calhoun County officials objected to spending time and money on the training exercises when they had not received necessary equipment such as protective suits.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., wrote Army Secretary White calling the plan, "a perverse and irresponsible attempt to deflect attention away from the Army's failures." The Anniston Star called the federal move an "Army ambush" and a "scheme" whereby the Army could "launch into a frontal public relations assault."

Bolton in Charge of "One Roof"
In a Jan. 15 memorandum, Secretary of the Army Thomas White directed Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr. to take over the Chemical Demilitarization Program and, along with the Army Materiel Command's General Kern, to establish an agency to "execute chemical demilitarization plant construction, operation, and closure, as well as chemical weapons storage."

As Williams remarked, "This will put the stockpile storage and disposal responsibilities under one roof." In the past, the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command has been in charge of storage, with the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization over the destruction of chemical weapons. Personnel changes, both national and local, had been anticipated for some time. Nationally, Jim Dires has replaced Lawrence Skelly, who was the target of criticism over the E-mail War.

In the past, CSEPP Governing board members have expressed a concern that future Army administrators might not remember promises and assurances made by the old guard they replace. In May last year, Denzel Fisher, a high-up from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, and the one who negotiated for Umatilla's original FEMA money in 1988, visited the Oregon CSEPP Governing Board and told them, "The Army is responsible for the demilitarization program and always will be." He said, "Emergency preparedness will always have the Army's support, "regardless of who is calling the shots."

UMCD officials do not expect the change at the top to bring about any major, immediate changes in the day to day operations a UMCD, according to Mary Binder, the UMCD public information person.

Locally, Lt. Col. Fred Pellisier will rotate out of the command in July, but that is a routine command change, unrelated to larger events.

http://www.cwwg.org/hh01.24.03.html

Neutralization draws skepticism

Hermiston Herald
April 2, 2002
By Frank Lockwood (F. Ellsworth Lockwood)
Staff writer

HERMISTON - The Army can speed up the destruction of chemical agent and perhaps save money by using neutralization on the mustard agent at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, an assistant secretary of the Army says. However, he said, "If the community doesn't want to do it, that's fine."

Mario Fiori, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment, spoke at the PMCD Outreach Office last Tuesday about accelerating chemical weapons destruction. "I'd like decrease the time that it would take to get rid of (the nerve agent) by about four to five years," he said.

To speed incineration, the Army could go to three shifts, and employ "reconfiguration," and change procedures at the incinerator in order to process weapons faster.

"I find this a little confusing," said Morrow County Judge Terry Tallman, "when we have been told that incineration is state of the art and the best way to take care of this."

"I'm a believer in incineration," Fiori responded. "Neutralization is fairly straight forward."

Hermiston community leaders, encouraged by the Army, have repeatedly spoken for incineration but against neutralization for this site. Fiori anticipated reluctance to accept the changes. "I have read ... 'We are on this path, let's stay on it, don't deviate.' Well, we can do that if that's really what the community wants. It won't get rid of that (agent) five years earlier though."

Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty questioned the turn around. "Speedy neutralization wasn't recommended six years ago, particularly by the Army," Doherty said, and "What has changed that makes it of interest now?"

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks added motivation for speeding weapons destruction, Fiori said, but, otherwise, "Nothing has changed. I am just interested in speeding up the process." On the other hand, the Army could save several years by modifying incineration procedures, employing alternate technologies, including neutralization of mustard, and by addressing unspecified "regulation issues."

Incineration opponents have been alert for any indication Fiori would seek a "Consent Decree," which amounts to a waiver of past permit decisions. DEQ's Wayne Thomas said Friday that the state is not considering a Consent Decree.

And neutralization would not delay or slow incineration, Fiori said. "I want to accelerate the throughput of that very safe incinerator. I want to make sure that we are operating the most efficiently that's possible. I want to investigate all presumptions in the way we work. I challenge the contractor to come up with a whole bunch of ways to accelerate, if he could, and I think it could easily save five years." Fiori said.

Neutralization is touted as a safer, faster way to destroy 2,635 tons of mustard stored in Umatilla, which makes up about 64 percent of all the chemical agent stockpile at the depot.

Comfortable With Incineration
"It has taken 11 or 12 years to get our people who are here somewhat comfortable with the incineration process," said Umatilla Mayor George Hash. "Now you want us to tell them differently." 


Hash and others questioned adding alternative technologies to the budget when cash is short for present safety programs. "Present radio system can't keep contact with uptown and downtown Umatilla," Hash said. "If we throw in anything new that (citizens) even perceive as delaying the startup, we are going to have some unhappy people here," Hash said. "Don't do anything that's going to delay the startup of this incineration process."


Fiori, however, said his goal was to speed up incineration, not to slow it down.

Impacts Questioned
Morrow County Judge Terry Tallman suggested that running two plants at once would aggravate a boom-bust cost to his community. He inquired as to whether adding another facility - and the impacts on the communities it would bring - would make federal impact aid any more likely.

"That's a valid issue, but I don't think you will get impact aid," Fiori said.

Tallman had concerns about the environmental impact, and about waste management. "The depot is in a critical groundwater area," he said, "and what we have been told about this technology is that it demands tremendous amounts of water. One of the things we do not want to see is people's private wells and the city's' wells be impacted because of this greater demand for water."


A release from Chemical Weapons Working group, however, challenged that notion, saying that neutralization might use less water than incineration.


Tallman asked about the disposal of contaminated water which would be generated by neutralization. "We don't have the facilities in Oregon to handle it - the infrastructure," he said.

"The waste that comes from neutralization is fairly benign," Fiori noted. "You will drown in it before you are poisoned by it." But Tallman responded that he was concerned about the "sheer volume," not the toxicity of the neutralization waste.

Other Interests
Increasing incinerator operations to three shifts, seven days per week, would increase the need for on-duty CSEPP personnel, but money is not budgeted for that, county commissioners said. Army spokesmen replied that they needed round-the-clock response capabilities anyway, and that moving munitions would only occur during daylight hours, under specific weather conditions.

Morrow County Commissioner John Wenholz suggested that funding for safety should be tied to any changes that would impact emergency preparedness. "You say ... for the safety of the United States it is important that we move this program ahead," Wenholz said. "I am saying, that for the safety of the citizens that live in this area, we need whatever funding it takes to provide for their safety."

"If you need more resources, I can't imagine not doing it," Fiori told those present.

Goals the Same
Citizens Advisory Commission Chairman Bob Flournoy voiced a recurring theme when he said, "If we do bring in new technology, we are not going to (want to) slow anything down. Because that's what everyone's interested in. Getting rid of this stuff."

"Yes sir," Fiori said. "We certainly agree with the goals that you just said. And (incineration and neutralization) would be simultaneous operations, if it ever happens. I am not slowing down incineration."

Frank Lockwood may be reached at 567-6457 or by e-mail at
flockwood@hermistonherald.com.


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