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Casper, Wyoming |
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - Legislation sponsored by Colorado's senators and lawmakers from three other states is aimed at prodding federal officials to proceed with plans to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons near Pueblo and Kentucky.
Colorado Sens. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, and Wayne Allard, a Republican sponsored an amendment to ensure that there's $51 million in the 2006 defense budget to design and build plants to destroy chemical weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
The measure would transfers funds from part of the budget to make the money available. Senators from Michigan, Kentucky and Virginia co-sponsored the amendment.
Legislation by Allard and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would require the Defense Department to come up with new cost estimates for destruction of the weapons at the two bases. Allard said the amendment would remove what he believes are unreasonable spending caps.
Work at the two sites was put on hold earlier this year after defense officials said the costs were too high. Allard and McConnell have said the cost caps of $1.7 billion for the Pueblo depot and $2 billion for the Kentucky base are unrealistic.
They are concerned that less expensive alternatives could result in the weapons being shipped to existing facilities to be destroyed. Colorado lawmakers have said that would be riskier and unfair to the communities that have geared up for the jobs the construction will generate.
''The new cost estimate will allow the program manager and the people of Pueblo and Blue Grass to better determine the most efficient, rapid and safe method for cleaning up these chemical weapons sites,'' Allard said.
Defense officials received a proposal Friday for scaled-back plants at the two depots. The plan was developed by the prime contractor, Bechtel.
Together, the Pueblo and Kentucky depots account for 10 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons. An international treaty ratified by the Senate in 1997 mandates that the weapons be destroyed by 2012.
AP-WS-07-23-05 1647EDT