Pentagon continues seeking ways to meet chemical weapons destruction deadline

By Brian Lyman
Star Staff Writer
05-18-2005

While the transportation of chemical weapons to Anniston from other storage sites is off the table, the Pentagon still has to figure out how to meet an international deadline for the elimination of America’s stockpile. The Army’s Chemical Materials Agency, which oversees the destruction, has been working on an alternatives assessment report that would suggest ways for the Pentagon to destroy the country’s chemical weapons stockpile within seven years. The Pentagon said Monday that the report will not be made public until late June. The report initially was due in April. Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said he did not know the reason for the delay, although he noted that removing transportation from the list of alternatives and the freeing up of money for building disposal facilities in Colorado and Kentucky had altered the options since the spring. The Pentagon also needs to review the report. “We need an opportunity to look at it,” Carpenter said. “We may need to ask follow-up questions, and then develop an idea of all those alternatives, what our priorities are, and what we think the best way ahead will be.” CMA spokesman Greg Mahall said he had not yet received guidance from DOD on the report. “We have not received official closure on this, although I think it’s safe to say our work is done,” he said. The Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified by the United States in 1997, requires the Army to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by 2007, with a one-time extension to 2012. The Army has destroyed about one-third of the stockpile and should have about 90 percent of it eliminated by 2010. Officials say full destruction before the April 29, 2012 deadline seems unlikely: Chemical neutralization plants in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond Ky., have not been built and may not be completed until 2012. For that reason, and because of budget problems, the Pentagon in December directed the Army’s Chemical Materials Agency to come up with a list of alternatives for destruction of the stockpile. The Army had considered transporting weapons from Colorado and Kentucky to working disposal facilities, like Anniston’s, but that proposal was abandoned last month after fierce criticism from members of Congress. The remaining options include accelerated neutralization in existing areas, relocation of demilitarization equipment, and secondary treatment options. Mahall and Jeffrey Lindblad, another spokesman with CMA, said the agency also considered inquiries into the wording in the CWC. The chemical neutralization of weapons at Newport, Ind., creates a byproduct that contains traces of the nerve agent, and it may not be clear from the treaty whether a weapon would be considered destroyed if the traces remain in the byproduct. The spokesmen added that that option was still in the discussion stage. “That goes even beyond the DOD,” Mahall said. “In discussions and negotiation, that’s when you get in to the State Department area.” Michael Nguyen, a research assistant at Arms Control Today, a publication of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said Russia has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which enforces the treaty, to address the issue. The OPCW has not yet taken a position on the topic, Nguyen said. “They’re still trying to negotiate a demarcation in terms of a destruction point in the process,” he said.

About Brian Lyman

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