Bill would stop study on weapons transfer

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon would not be allowed to study whether to ship chemical weapons between stockpile sites, including Anniston, under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate Wednesday.

Although current law says the Army can't move the weapons across state lines, the Department of Defense said last week it would nevertheless explore such an option. The study will last three months and cost $150,000, according to U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Co., a sponsor of the bill to stop the funding.

"Current law says you can't do it, but this law says you can't even study it," said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a watchdog of the program and supporter of the bill.

The issue is whether obsolete but deadly chemical weapons stored in Colorado, Indiana and Kentucky should be moved to states that already have up-and-running facilities to destroy them. Because of proximity, Kentucky's stash could be moved to Anniston's incinerator, less than 400 miles away.

The incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot was built to destroy more than 660,000 Cold War-era weapons loaded with deadly nerve agents that have been stored at the depot for decades. Alabama officials were assured by the Pentagon that additional munitions from other states would not be added to the Anniston incinerator's load.

"Studying whether to relocate the stockpile is an incredible waste of time and scarce defense dollars," Allard said in a prepared statement. "The money should be used to help pay for the rising cost of disposing of these weapons, not a meaningless intellectual exercise."

Allard, in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, said he and the people of Pueblo would oppose any plan to move the 2,600 tons of mustard gas across the state of Colorado.

2012 deadline:

The Army when it announced the study said it was trying to meet the 2012 deadline of an international treaty for the United States to have destroyed its stockpile.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Wednesday he would cosponsor the bill to halt the study on weapons shipments.

"In the past, I was given assurances that the incinerator in Anniston would be used only for the destruction of weapons already in Anniston and once that work was complete, the facility would no longer be used," Shelby said in a prepared statement. "I am hopeful that the Department of Defense will keep its word."

Both of Kentucky's senators are supporting the bill, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., was reviewing it.

"As I recall, the Department of Defense told me a number of years ago that additional chemical weapons or chemical weapons materials would not be brought into Anniston and I expect the department to adhere to that," Sessions said in a statement.

E-mail: morndorff@bhamnews.com