Tue, Mar. 9, 2004

Pentagon rules out relocating chemical weapons for disposal
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

By Alison Vekshin
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has decided to shelve a proposal to move some of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile among disposal sites to speed their destruction.

"At this point, the transportation option is no longer being studied," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter said Thursday.

The proposal had been considered in a study to find cost-saving, speedy alternatives to destroy the stockpile by a 2012 international treaty deadline.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal is one of eight sites where weapons are stored. It began incinerating 3,850 tons of material last month.

The decision to reject the transportation plan was detailed in an April 15 memo by Michael Wynne, Pentagon acting under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

In the letter, Wynne released $372 million to begin building destruction facilities in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky., the only two sites still in the design phase.

Those funds coupled with money requested in President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget would be enough to manage the projects, he wrote.

"Mr. Wynne recognized that we have received enough data at this juncture to release the fiscal 2005 funding to the program manager to continue redesign efforts as well as stop further investigation of transportation options at this time," Carpenter said.

The results of the study are expected later this month.

Evelyn Yates, executive director of Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal, said she was satisfied with the decision. The group had opposed the possibility that Pine Bluff might have received more chemical material.

"It means that Pine Bluff won't be a dumping ground," she said.

The decision came after intense opposition from Kentucky and Colorado senators to relocating aging chemical ammunition stored in those states.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., had introduced a bill that would have blocked the Army study.

"The Department of Defense has finally listened to my concerns and the concerns of the Pueblo community," Allard said in a statement.