09:54 AM PDT on Friday, July 8, 2005

Associated Press

HERMISTON, Ore. -- The Department of Environmental Quality has fined the operator of a chemical weapons disposal facility for violations of its safety permit.

A worker inspects some of the weapons stockpiled at the Umatilla depot. (AP File Photo)

The Washington Demilitarization Company will have to pay penalties totaling $7,200 for the violations, which occurred last October at the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot in Hermiston.

The depot contains about 12 percent of the nation's supply of chemical rockets, bombs, mines and artillery shell, dating back to the Cold War. Following a protracted battle with environmental groups and local residents who feared destroying the weapons was unsafe, the depot began burning the cache late last year to comply with treaty obligations.

So far the depot has destroyed about 18,000 of the 91,000 sarin rockets stored there.

The department fined the company $3,900 for feeding hazardous waste into one of the disposal facility's incinerators at the wrong temperature.

The company was fined an additional $3,300 for taking off line an air monitoring system. The permit for the facility states that the monitor can only be shut off if an alternative system is turned on to keep track of the ventilation exhaust.