Tue, Mar. 9, 2004

DOD requests $331.7 million as Pine Bluff prepares to destroy weapons
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

By Alison Vekshin
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- As the Pine Bluff Arsenal prepares to begin incinerating its stockpile of aging chemical weapons, the Defense Department is asking Congress for $331.7 million to keep the project running through September 2007.

If approved by Congress, the funds would be used to operate and upgrade the Pine Bluff incineration plant in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, according to a budget estimate the Defense Department released for its Chemical Agents and Munitions Destruction Program.

Congress already has approved $124.2 million for the Pine Bluff incinerator for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2005.

"The funds that have been proposed for '06 and '07 will allow us to safely eliminate the chemical munitions stored here at the arsenal," said Raini Wright, a spokeswoman for the incinerator, formally known as the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

The $500 million incinerator is scheduled to begin destroying 3,850 tons of chemical agents at an unspecified date at the end of this month, Wright added.

The arsenal will continue weapons' destruction into 2008 and beyond, but the Pentagon has not developed budget estimates for the later years yet, Army spokesman Greg Mahall said.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal is one of eight sites that house the nation's reserve of chemical weapons, which must be destroyed by a 2012 international treaty deadline.

The arsenal stores slightly more than 12 percent of the entire stockpile, which originally totaled 31,500 tons when it was first declared in 1985.

The funding request would go toward the destruction of 970,000 pounds of GB-filled rockets and 295,000 pounds of VX-filled munitions stored at the arsenal. GB, also known as sarin, and VX are liquid nerve agents that affect the central nervous system.

Almost 6.5 million pounds of mustard agent stored at the arsenal are scheduled for destruction in 2008 and beyond, Mahall said.

The Defense Department is requesting $149.6 million in fiscal 2006 and $168 million in fiscal 2007 to operate and maintain the incinerator. In fiscal 2005, Congress approved $118.2 million for the incinerator's operation and maintenance costs.

The money would go toward labor, training, waste disposal, equipment rental, spare parts and other costs.

An additional $14.1 million request for the two-year period would go toward design changes and equipment upgrades at the incinerator. In fiscal 2005, Congress approved $6 million for the arsenal for that purpose.

"These numbers are not solid until approved by Congress," Mahall said of the budget request. "It's a guessing game at this point.

"In the past we have seen submitted budgets stay the same," he said. "We've seen them slashed and augmented in minor increments."

Constructed in February 2002, the arsenal is scheduled to complete the incineration of its stockpile by 2011, Mahall added.