Friday April 2, 2004 2:01 AM

By ROBERT GEHRKE
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators warned House members Thursday about the ballooning cost and missed deadlines plaguing the Army's efforts to rid itself of 31,000 tons of chemical weapons.

The Army has made little progress in the last six months and continues to fall further behind schedule to meet its deadline under an international treaty, said Raymond J. Decker, director of defense capabilities and management for the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The cost of the project, now in excess of $25 billion, is expected to climb substantially if delays continue, Decker told a House Armed Services subcommittee on terrorism.

Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., chairman of the subcommittee, said, ``We have to seek measures to reduce the time required to destroy the stockpile and we have to seek measures to reduce the cost of that destruction.'' He called the current cost estimates ``mind-boggling.''

Dale Klein, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, told the committee that the Pentagon is committed to disposing of the weapons stockpile as quickly as possible in order to remove a potential terrorist target and eliminate the need for storage.

The costs of helping communities with emergency preparedness also continues to balloon. To date, more than $723 million has been spent in local communities, and the budget requests for the current year and the coming year have exceeded the approved budget by $88 million.

About 31,000 tons of lethal chemical agents were slated for destruction under the Army's supervision, either through incineration or through chemical neutralization.

Through March 15, 8,600 tons had been destroyed, including most of the stockpile of GB nerve agent, also known as sarin. Work is just beginning to dispose of VX, a much more lethal nerve agent, which can be fatal if just a drop comes in contact with the skin.

The weapons are being incinerated at sites in Tooele, Utah, and Anniston, Ala., and neutralization is underway at Aberdeen, Md. Incinerators are expected to go on line in Umatilla, Ore., and Pine Bluff, Ark., in the coming year, along with a neutralization facility in Newport, Ind. Neutralization sites in Pueblo, Colo., and Blue Grass, Ky., are in the early design stages.