Measure sets 2017 deadline to destroy chemical weapons

The Associated Press Sep. 12, 2007

DENVER -- The Army would have 10 years to destroy lethal chemical weapons stored in Pueblo and in Richmond, Ky., under a measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday.

An amendment to a Defense Department appropriations bill orders the destruction of mustard and nerve agents at the two sites by Dec. 31, 2017.

The amendment was sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.

Allard said the language would assure the weapons-destruction program would get a budget increase and would be made a high priority.

The bill must still be approved by the full Senate.

A chemical weapons treaty signed by the U.S. and nearly 180 other countries calls for the chemical weapons to be destroyed by 2012, but the Army has said it will not meet finish by then.

McConnell said that without the deadline set in the appropriations bill, the Army wouldn't finish destroying the chemicals in 2023.

"Without a firm deadline, DOD will continue to drag its feet," he said.

Allard called the provision a big step.

"The establishment of hard deadline for the Department of Defense to destroy these weapons will ensure that cleanup will be a top priority," he said.

The Pueblo depot stores 2,611 tons of mustard agent in projectiles and cartridges. The Blue Grass depot stores 532 tons of nerve and blister agents in rockets and projectiles.

The destruction program is overseen by the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives agency, part of the Defense Department.