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Casper, Wyoming |
DENVER (AP) - A bill co-sponsored by Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar will seek to block funding of a $150,000 feasibility study of shipping chemical munitions from storage facilities in Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana to out-of-state sites where destruction systems are already in place.
Both senators said earlier this month they had received assurances from the Pentagon that the mustard gas at Pueblo Chemical Depot would not be shipped out-of-state. The Defense Department announced the study the day after their meeting with the senators Jan. 18.
''It is extemely disturbing to me that the Pentagon would study the possibility of relocating the Pueblo's chemical weapon stockpile after the Pentagon assured (us) last week that such an option was unrealistic, not to mention illegal,'' Allard said. The measure was expected to be introduced Wednesday by Allard, with Salazar co-sponsoring the bill.
''While we wait for the promised clarification on these matters, Senator Allard and I believe it is necessary to emphasize our resolve,'' Salazar said in a statement. ''This legislation helps provide that emphasis.''
The Army depot at Pueblo is one of two chemical-weapons sites that don't have destruction systems in place yet. The additional costs of the war in Iraq has delayed funding of multi-million dollar destruction systems at Pueblo and the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Ky.
Sites with disposal facilties constructed or in operation are located in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon and Utah.
An international treaty sets a 2012 deadline for destruction of the country's stockpile of chemical weapons.