No
nerve gas from elsewhere coming to PB Arsenal, Pentagon says
Associated Press
Thu, Apr. 21, 2005
LITTLE ROCK
-- A proposal that the Army consider moving stockpiled chemical weapons from
some storage sites to others where they could be destroyed--like the Pine
Bluff Arsenal--has been looked at and discarded, at least for now, the Pentagon
says.
"We have enough information on the means and
methods to accomplish our objectives without the necessity to address the
concept of transportation," said Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a spokesman for
the Defense Department.
The Pine Bluff Arsenal is one of eight
sites where chemical weapons, now banned by international treaty, are stored
in the nation. It also has an incinerator, where destruction of the arsenal's
3,850-ton stockpile began last month.
The Pentagon hopes to meet a 2012 deadline
in the treaty for destroying the weapons. But the military's involvement
in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq has raised defense spending already, and
funds for chemical-weapons destruction could be hard to come by.
The Army was ordered in January to study whether destruction of the weapons
could safely be hastened by moving some of them from bases in Colorado and
Kentucky, where no destruction facilities are yet functioning, to bases in
other states where such facilities are already operating or about to begin
doing so.
Earlier studies concluded that destroying the weapons where they were stored
was the safest and cheapest option. The order to consider moving some of
the weapons drew criticism from several members of the U.S. Senate, as well
as those less than enthusiastic about the destruction program.
Moving the weapons could increase the
risk of lethal accidents, critics said.
In a memo Friday, Michael Wynne, undersecretary
of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, released millions of
dollars to begin building destruction facilities in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond,
Ky. The money had been frozen pending the latest study, and Wynne wrote that
he believes the weapons can be destroyed on-site in time to meet the 2012
deadline.
Evelyn Yates, a member of the group Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal, said she
and many of her neighbors had been anxious about the possibility of chemical
weapons being imported to the area. She welcomed the Pentagon decision.
"This makes me very happy," Yates said. "It's something I'm not going to
have to worry about."