3 chemical weapons bases slated to close

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department on Friday recommended closing three of the eight bases where Cold War-era chemical weapons are being stored and destroyed.

The depots in Utah, Oregon and Indiana are part of the Army's program to destroy the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile by 2012, as required under an international treaty. All three have started destroying their deadly stockpiles - using incinerators at two plants and chemical neutralization at the third.

Environmentalists and some area residents have criticized the chemical weapons destruction plants, saying they are unsafe. Some small leaks of chemical agents have occurred, particularly at the base in Utah, but no one outside the bases was hurt.

Destruction of the chemical weapons will continue, said Marilyn Daughdrill, a spokeswoman for the Army Chemical Materials Agency. All of the chemical weapons depots have detailed plans for decontamination and environmental cleanup before they are finally closed, she said.

"We will not sacrifice safety," Daughdrill said.

The three depots suggested for closure are:

_ The Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah.

_ The Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon.

_ The Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.

President Nixon ordered a halt to U.S. chemical weapons production in 1969, and the U.S. signed the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, pledging to destroy its remaining stockpiles. The Chemical Materials Agency says it has destroyed about 43 percent of its chemical munitions and 36 percent of the chemical weapons agents in bulk storage.

The Army built incineration plants for chemical weapons at the Umatilla and Deseret depots, as well as other bases in Alabama and Arkansas. Newport and another facility in Maryland use the chemical neutralization process. Sites in Colorado and Kentucky are planned for trying other disposal technologies.

One of the most serious accidents came in 2002, when a worker at the Deseret incinerator was exposed to the nerve agent sarin during a botched maintenance job. The worker survived.

Deseret's incinerator has been operating since 1996 and so far has destroyed all the sarin stored at the depot, Daughdrill said. Deseret held 44 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile before the destruction began.

Deseret, the site farthest along in its destruction of chemical weapons, is scheduled to finish destroying all of its chemical weapons in 2009, Daughdrill said.

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Army Chemical Materials Agency: http://www.cma.army.mil