It may have taken more than 20 years, but the Local Reuse Authority, or LRA, finally has been recognized by the federal government – one step closer to closing the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Bill Hansell, Umatilla County commissioner and LRA chair, said the authority officially was recognized on the Federal Register Jan. 12 – an important milestone in the process of figuring out what to do with the Depot once the chemical munitions mission is completed and the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is destroyed.

“Now that we have been officially recognized, the time lines have kicked in,” Hansell said.

Once the Federal Register recognized the LRA, a 30-day notice period was to have started to advertise for submissions for possible re-uses of the surplus Depot land, Hansell said. Kristen Orr, the project manager for the Office of Economic Adjustment for Umatilla, told Hansell the publication notice could be held off for a short time to allow the LRA to set a meeting date.

The next LRA meeting is at 1:15 p.m. Feb. 5. The place has not been determined.

“We need to meet again and go through the decisions needed to be made,” Hansell said.

Orr will attend the February meeting and will outline the government’s expectations for the LRA. There are grant funds available to hire administration staff to sift through the submissions – which come from public entities – and will be tailored to the LRA’s needs, Orr told LRA members in November.

Members of the LRA include representatives from Umatilla and Morrow counties and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

One of the LRA’s main responsibilities is to conduct outreach with homeless providers, prepare a redevelopment plan and submit that plan and a homeless assistance plan to the Office of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and the Army. She said those items could take up to two years to process. If no public entity submits a notice of interest, then the LRA could accept proposals from commercial entities for the property.

It takes time, said Orr, to finalize projects and do an inventory of the property and work out alternatives and options for the property re-use. The outreach period could take anywhere from 90-180 days, which would give the LRA an opportunity to comply with the HUD requirement for homeless assistance. It is up to the Department of Defense to determine which federal agency transfers would be in the best interest of the federal government and what real property actually is surplus.

The LRA must conduct at least one public hearing workshop and conduct outreach to representatives of the homeless and solicit interest of other parties, Orr said. The LRA also would be required to consider notices of interest received when it is preparing the base redevelopment plan. The redevelopment plan – statute allows 270 days for the planning period – is a combination of the community vision, goals and objectives for the base redevelopment and a recommendation to the Army about making decisions.

“It is also the primary instrument to ensure land use compatibility between the surrounding community and the former base,” Orr said.

For Hansell, the final recognition has been a long time coming.

The Umatilla Chemical Depot was put on the Base Closure and Realignment list in 1988, but then removed because, Hansell said, the mission at the Depot was clearly not completed; as a matter of fact, it was just starting.

Because then-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt thought a task force should be formed for the future re-use of the Depot, Hansell and others, like local attorney George Anderson and representatives from the two county ports, were appointed.

“There was no chain of command, no chain of authority,” Hansell said.

Under the Clinton administration, a bill was passed establishing local re-use authorities. The governor’s task force “morphed” into the LRA, Hansell said. Unfortunately, the LRA had no authority without official recognition from the federal government. Then Sept. 11 happened. Potential leases with businesses were not completed; not only because of the lack of recognition, but because security got really tight at the Depot.

“Nine-11 changed all that,” Hansell said. “It went from a very secure base to a very, very, very secure base.”

Part of the problem, too, said Hansell, was the Army had projected that the chemical mission would be complete in 2019.

“The Army said why pour money when the date is so far ahead?” Hansell said. “The Army was unwilling to change it (the date) in case they couldn’t fulfill the treaty requirements.”

Hansell said the Army was finally convinced the dates it had projected weren’t real because crews at the disposal facility and the Depot have been making good progress. Final destruction of the chemical weapons is expected to be completed sometime in the next two years.

“We’re in the early stages,” said Hansell about the LRA. “Nobody knows what will come in the future.”