The Army yesterday said the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF) Oregon completed the disposal of the chemical weapons stockpile stored at Umatilla Chemical Depot (UMCD).
CMA Director Conrad Whyne, said: “Thanks to the steadfast dedication of the Umatilla team–the United States Army, its civilian workers and contractors–the Umatilla community, the state of Oregon, and our Nation are all safer today. I could not be more proud of our workforce.”
The original inventory of chemical weapons stored at located UMCD included 220,604 nerve agent and mustard agent munitions and containers holding 3,717 tons of chemical agent. Destruction operations began Sept. 8, 2004.
The UMCDF mission was to provide safe and environmentally compliant chemical agent destruction operations using incineration technology while ensuring maximum protection of the installation and community population.
The Umatilla Chemical Depot (UCD), a subordinate element of the Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA), had the mission to provide the safe and secure maintenance, storage and transport of 12 percent of the original U.S. stockpile of chemical munitions and containers.
CMA, located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., has the mission to provide safe, secure storage of the Nation’s chemical weapons and to safely destroy 90 percent of the Nation’s chemical weapons stockpile.
“The vast experience of CMA employees and contractors–both at the site and at headquarters–was used to build, operate, and oversee the work to safely accomplish today’s destruction milestone. This same cooperation has been demonstrated for the successful operation of CMA storage and disposal facilities across the Nation,” said Col. John Lemondes, CMA project manager for Chemical Stockpile Elimination.
The UMCD and UMCDF will now begin to close down, a process that will continue for as long as 48 months.
So far, the Army Chemical Materials Agency has safely completed disposal operations and closed facilities in Edgewood, Md.; Newport, Ind.; and Johnston Atoll, located 800 miles southwest of Hawaii.
Additionally the Agency has completed disposal operations in Anniston, Ala., and Pine Bluff, Ark., and is in the process of closing those chemical agent disposal facilities.
CMA continues to safely store and destroy the chemical weapons stockpile in Tooele, Utah.
CMA also safely stores the chemical weapons stockpiles in Richmond, Ky. and Pueblo, Colo. The disposal of these munitions falls under the purview of the Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, a separate Defense Department program.