Umatilla Depot Activity Disposal Of Chemical Agents And Munitions

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.

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.

The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF), located near Umatilla, Oregon, USA, was designed to safely destroy the stockpile of chemical munitions and agent stored at the U.S. Army Umatilla Chemical Depot (UMCD). Originally, there were more than 220,000 munitions in the depot inventory, including rockets, bombs, projectiles, mines, spray tanks, and ton containers. They were filled with chemical agents: GB (sarin) and VX nerve agent and HD (mustard) blister agent. Prior to the start of operations, the chemical agent inventory totaled 7.4 million pounds (12% of the U.S. stockpile). The contract was awarded in February 1997, and the project scope included equipment acquisition, personnel training, and operations and maintenance of the UMCDF. Construction of the facility began in June 1997, followed by systemization and plant readiness activities. The Operations Phase officially started on 7 September 2004 when the first GB rocket was destroyed. UMCDF completed Operations on 25 October 2011 by destroying the final HD ton container. The Cost plus Award Fee contract value for the UMCDF Operations Phase was US$1.4 billion. The United States agreed to complete destruction of their declared chemical weapons stockpile by 29 April 2012 in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Treaty. As UMCDF was completing its construction and systemization phase, the project was severely challenged in meeting this timeline based on operational assessments predicting the end of agent destruction in 2014. This paper details the project of destroying stocks of deadly munitions on an unwavering timetable in a strictly regulated environment. It begins by describing the operations phase and then addresses the challenges faced by the project management team. The paper also looks at how project management and integration were designed to implement safe and compliant activities throughout the project. It details the project scope management by specifically examining the scope statement, work breakdown structure, and the management control system. The paper overviews project time/schedule management and project cost management. Through aggressive optimization of munitions processing, and outstanding teamwork to overcome numerous challenges, the project beat the international treaty date by six months. The project completed a remarkable 935 days ahead of the Life Cycle Schedule and under the budget by US$384.6 million.