| The Blue Grass Chemical Stockpile in Richmond, Ky., has
full permission to destroy chemical weapons.
Now they need to design the building. Blue Grass received an air-quality permit from the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday, the last regulatory permit the facility needs to begin operations. The state already has granted permits that allow storage and construction. The air-quality permit means weapons can be destroyed at the site. “That allows the operation piece of it,” said Dave Easter, a spokesman for the Blue Grass Army Depot. “You’ve got a storage piece, a construction piece and an operation piece. This has moved forward.” Unlike Anniston, Blue Grass and a chemical weapons site in Pueblo, Colo., fall under the Army’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program (ACWA). ACWA plans to use chemical neutralization processes to destroy the weapons there. The actual construction of the facilities, however, is years away, and funding for both sites was in question earlier this year after the Pentagon threatened to cut funding for ACWA, citing the costs of the war in Iraq and rising cost estimates for the construction of the facilities. Money for the program was released in May, and the facilities are being redesigned. Blue Grass and Pueblo should get $51 million in fiscal year 2006, said Kathy DeWeese, an ACWA spokeswoman. No timetable has been set for the start of construction or the beginning of weapons demilitarization. “We’re working with the Department of Defense to get approval on the redesigns,” DeWeese said. “Once that’s in place, we should be able to get an estimate on how much and (how) fluidly we can move.” Crews at Blue Grass will begin clearing trees for an access
road in November, Easter said. |
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About Brian Lyman
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Brian Lyman covers infrastructure and the cities of Heflin and Lincoln for the Anniston Star. He lives in Anniston. |
| Phone: Fax: E-mail: |
256-235-3544 256-241-1991 blyman@annistonstar.com |
