By Karen Hutchinson-Talaski

Staff writer

HERMISTON The opportunity for a possible $10,000 a month contract that the Umatilla County Chemical Depot Local Reuse Authority (LRA) was working on to store railroad cars on the Umatilla Chemical Depot has been nixed by Lt. Col. Donna Rutten due to safety issues.

The LRA has been working with a company out of Kingsport, Tenn., who wanted to store railroad cars at the depot’s rail yard on the south side of the UMCD’s fence along Interstate 84. To make this happen, UMCD would have had to declare the rail yard as surplus.

That did not happen.

According to Bruce Henrickson, spokesperson for the UMCD, Rutten and “higher headquarters” took a closer look at the the rail yard surplusing idea.

“It was determined safety was a concern,” Henrickson said.

Emergency evacuation routes could be compromised, plus in recent months, Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) officials have raised concerns about agent plumes getting off the depot; although the Army feels the scenario unlikely, they still want to be perceived as listening to the offpost community.

The LRA, according to Umatilla County Commissioner and LRA member Bill Hansell, have been working for about six years to forge interim contracts on parts of the depot that are not being used. The railroad surplus denial was not welcome.

“Yes, it was a big surprise,” Hansell said. “No commander had expressed this before.”

Part of the problem, say both Hansell and Henrickson, is the the Umatilla LRA has not been recognized by the Department of the Defense’s Office of Economic Authority.

The OEA denied the LRA’s request for recognition after the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure listed Umatilla as slated for closure after its chemical mission is completed expected in the next six to eight years.

At the time OEA was looking at the LRA’s request, it determined the mission would not be complete until 2017 a date which Henrickson says is not correct any longer. Umatilla is ahead of schedule currently.

“Hopefully the OEA will look at the difference between the original schedule and where we are now,” Henrickson said.

When the decision was made to deny the surplus, Hansell says no one from the LRA was present at the table.

“We were blindsided by the withdrawal of the opportunity to get this done,” Hansell said.

However, Hansell said wheels are in motion to have a meeting with Army leadership and the LRA.

“The process is underway,” Hansell said.