Defense Department will not move chemical munitions from Pueblo Depot

By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- The U.S. Defense Department will release at least $300 million to destroy chemical weapons stockpiles at depots in Colorado and Kentucky, and officials say they are no longer considering hauling the munitions to incinerators in other states, for now.

In a letter to Congress released Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense Michael Wynne said project managers have been asked to develop budgets with a goal of meeting a 2012 international treaty deadline to destroy the weapons. Managers were told moving munitions is not on the table "at this time."

Money earmarked in the 2005 budget to destroy munitions at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and Blue Grass Depot in Kentucky had been frozen as the Pentagon studied less expensive alternatives, mainly shipping the weapons across state lines to existing incinerators.

Members of Congress from both states criticized that proposal. The Pueblo and Blue Grass depots are the only sites where disposal facilities have not yet been built.

"This was an unnecessary study whose purpose was just to delay the Kentucky and Colorado sites," Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said in a statement, adding that the change in position "is the right decision and it is time to move forward with destroying the weapons as soon as possible."

Allard and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said federal law prohibits shipping chemical weapons across state lines, but the Pentagon intended to try to change the law.

"The Department of Defense is recognizing that on-site water neutralization of the chemical weapons at Pueblo is the best path forward," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

John Salazar, whose district includes Pueblo, said he was concerned not only about the loss of jobs the plant would create, but also the possibility of transporting the weapons over mountain passes and other potentially dangerous roads. He introduced legislation in the House several months ago that would prohibit the Defense Department from studying weapons shipments.

"I'm very happy they decided this is not an option," he said.

The Pentagon had frozen about $813 million that Congress had approved for building the destruction plants. Officials recently released about $70 million of that, enough to allow progress at both plants to continue slowly.

Allard and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, both members of the Appropriations Committee, proposed an amendment to a spending package to require the Defense Department to release and spend the money. Under the legislation, the department would be prohibited from spending money earmarked for the projects on any other program.

The full Senate is scheduled to vote on the spending package this week, Allard said.

In a memo Friday to the program manager for the projects, Wynne said he was releasing all the funds that had been withheld for the projects in fiscal 2005 and ordered that the weapons be destroyed by the treaty deadline.

"I understand that you already have information indicating means and methods that balance these objectives without the necessity to address the concept of transportation at this time," Wynne's memo said.