Transportation of chemical weapons still under consideration

By Brian Lyman
Star Staff Writer
03-05-2005

Despite widespread opposition, the Pentagon still is considering transporting chemical weapons to existing incinerators such as the one in Calhoun County as a way of meeting an international deadline for chemical weapons disposal. The Army gave the Department of Defense an interim assessment of its disposal options Friday, presenting ways to destroy the nation’s stockpile by 2012. Transporting stockpiles to existing disposal facilities, such as Anniston’s, is one of the options being explored. “The options that were announced earlier, to include relocation of some of the stockpile, remain a part of the team’s evaluation of options,” Chemical Materials Agency Technical Lead Kevin Duvall said in a prepared statement. The Army is preparing a full report on its disposal options for release in early April. CMA officials declined to share further details on Friday’s meeting. CMA spokesman Jeffrey Lindblad said the Army knows of the political furor aroused by the transportation option, but that the Pentagon ordered an assessment of all options. “It’s not like we’re not aware of this,” he said. “We’re asked to do the assessment, including relocation. That’s what we’re tasked to do, and we did it.” Alabama’s state and federal representatives unanimously oppose moving the stockpiled weapons. But the Defense Department’s plans to freeze construction on disposal sites in Colorado and Kentucky until 2010 might make the option more attractive to the Pentagon if it means meeting the international deadline, according to government documents. A Department of Defense schedule prepared for senators and obtained by the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Ky., lists the Colorado and Kentucky facilities as being in “caretaker status” until 2010, with construction not beginning until 2012 and disposal starting in 2018 or 2019 — long after the deadline. In a December memo, the Pentagon noted budget cuts to chemical weapons disposal programs and told the Army to look into other ways of meeting the 2012 deadline. The Pentagon’s Chemical Weapons demilitarization budget for 2006 does not provide enough money to build the Colorado and Kentucky disposal facilities, based on the defense budget proposed by President Bush. If the United States is to meet the 2012 deadline, it would have to find other ways to destroy its stockpiles. State and federal legislators have been furiously stomping on the brake for the transportation option ever since the Pentagon memo was leaked in January. Federal law prohibits transporting chemical weapons across state lines. Alabama’s Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, has co-sponsored a bill in the Senate that would ban funding for the transportation study. Officials in other states also are concerned. The Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill on Feb. 24 that gives oversight of the state’s Newport disposal facility to the state’s department of Environmental Management. The bill would require transportation risk assessments to be filed before any movement and would charge $200 for each shipment. Indiana State Rep. F. Dale Grubb, a Democrat who introduced the bill, said last month that he believes federal laws would prevent interstate transportation of stockpiled weapons. “There has been some discussion as to whether to include a clause to prohibit importation or exportation,” he said. “I have not done that yet. If a request came from our senators or our congressman to do that, I would probably do that.” The Calhoun County Commission approved a resolution Feb. 24 opposing moving the stockpiled weapons. The Greater Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce opposes transportation, said Sherri Sumners, president of the Chamber, but said she didn’t get “too excited” over the prospect. “Our legislative delegation came out early, and they’re championing the cause,” she said. “We’re just not too worked up about it.” Any move of such weapons to Anniston’s incineration facility would require a change in the incinerator’s permit, which allows only destruction of the weapons already stockpiled at Anniston Army Depot. The incinerator could handle the additional volume, said Jim Grassiano, chief engineer of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s hazardous waste branch. Even without the laws banning the option, there are practical problems. “It’s an arduous path to get it done in accordance with their regulations and proper security and precautions,” he said. Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky, which has been critical of the Pentagon’s efforts, noted the State Department has indicated a commitment to sticking with the deadline, even as the Pentagon has frozen funding for the Colorado and Kentucky projects. “If you look at the (Pentagon’s) schedule and compare it with Secretary of State Rice’s position, they are contradictory,” Williams said. “You can’t have it both ways.”

About Brian Lyman

Brian Lyman covers infrastructure and the cities of Heflin and Lincoln for the Anniston Star. He lives in Anniston.