Utahns Propose Extending Life of Deseret Chemical Depot Aug. 4, 2005 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's Republicans in Congress want to prolong the life of the Deseret Chemical Depot by having it dispose of conventional weapons after it finishes its mission of destroying chemical weapons. "You could transform what's already there," Rep. Rob Bishop said Wednesday in an interview with the Washington bureau of The Salt Lake Tribune. "Rather than just tearing down the facility that you spent a billion dollars to put up, making it useful would keep jobs there and keep it (running)." The Pentagon has recommended to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the incinerator near Tooele be torn down after it finishes destroying chemical weapons. But in a letter last week to Anthony Principi, chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the Utah Republicans requested that commissioners leave open the option that Deseret's mission could be changed to dispose of aging shells, rockets and missile parts. "This large investment should not be abandoned," they wrote. "It would be a more responsible use of taxpayer funds, as well as more environmentally friendly, to consider converting the chemical destruction plant to a conventional munitions disposal operation rather than completely dismantling and tearing down this facility." The Utah members said a senior Pentagon official confirmed to them that work at the incinerator is far behind schedule and the earliest the chemical demolition could be completed is 2012. That is three years later than the Pentagon told Congress earlier this year. To make the change, Congress would have to change the existing law, which calls for the incinerator to be decommissioned and torn down. It would also require renegotiating the existing agreement between the governor and the Army. An Army Materiel Command report said there are about 397,000 tons of conventional munitions awaiting disposal. Existing defense facilities can dispose of a maximum of about 156,000 tons of weapons annually. Bishop said the munitions are currently burned or detonated in the open, "which has its own environmental problems." The Pentagon already recommended in its May report the closure of Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada - where the munitions are currently disposed of - and relocating the storage and demilitarization functions to Tooele Army Depot. The proposal has been met with strong resistance from the Hawthorne community. The delegation's letter is attached to a 370-page engineering study commissioned by the Pentagon in 1991, which said it is technically possible, but could be costly to convert the incinerator.