Hermiston Lab
A defunct mining laboratory in Hermiston, Oregon, was identified by local authorities and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) as potentially posing a threat to a dairy distribution center located adjacent to the laboratory in the same building at 81156 N. Highway 395, Hermiston, Oregon. The Hermiston Fire Department (HFD) hazardous materials unit conducted a brief survey of the site and observed mercury, mercury oxide, sodium metal (immersed in oil in a plastic pitcher). Initial reports indicated the site also contained 800 pounds of potassium cyanide pellets in drums, eight 55-gallon drums of acid waste, sixteen five-gallon buckets of acid sludge, twenty 1-gallon jugs of hydrochloric acid, thirty 1-gallon jugs of sulfuric acid, and hundreds of miscellaneous bottles each containing up to 2 pounds of chemicals.
Map of the site
Administrative Record Index
Removal Administrative Record - November 19, 2001
Fact Sheets
Hazardous Materials Cleaned Up At Lab Near Hermiston - October 2001
Hazardous Materials to be Removed from Lab Near Hermiston - July 2001
Request for Removal memo - July 2001
Pollution Reports
February 22, 2002
November 19, 2001
September 12, 2001
September 4, 2001
June 20, 2001
Photos
September 2001:
bulking liquid wastes | 
drop box filled with contaminated debris | 
nitric acid stored in camper |
staged drums and containers for disposal | 
waste drop boxes ready for disposal | 
wastes containing arsenic compounds |
from September 2001:
Removal of Debris | 
Staging of Drums and Containers |
 Consolidate Waste Streams |  Field Screen of Chemicals |
from July 2001
One of the lockers of Sulfuric Acid. |
55 gallon cans of chemical waste. | 
Front entrance to lab on right. Milk distribution in adjoining building. | 
Shed with containers of Nitric Acid. | 
Unknown chemicals in different sized containers. |