Commissioner: Pueblo Depot project funding needs to be reinstated

By BILL McKEOWN THE GAZETTE

February 3, 2004

The head of a statewide advisory committee for the Pueblo Army Depot said Tuesday he's hoping Colorado's congressional delegation can restore funding to destroy 780,000 mustard gas munitions.

A preliminary budget submitted Monday by the Bush Administration cut all but $4.9 million from $151.6 million the depot planned to receive in 2005. The money was to be used to start building a $1.5 billion plant to neutralize the mustard gas with high-temperature water, said John Klomp, a Pueblo County commissioner and chairman of the Pueblo Army Depot Citizens Advisory Committee.

The plant was scheduled to be operating in four years, with destruction of the World War II-vintage mustard gas, now contained in 105mm artillery rounds and stored in special igloos, completed in a decade.

Klomp said members of Colorado's U.S. congressional delegation, including Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Joel Hefley, support restoring funding for the depot project. Allard serves on the powerful Joint Armed Services Committee, and Hefley is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Klomp said he also is counting on lobbying by the Kentucky delegation, which also had funding cut for a similar project in that state.

“The budget is now out of the hands of the bureaucrats,” he said. “My confidence is in our congressional delegation, and we'll work with them to keep the task on schedule.”

Klomp was in Washington D.C. early this week to meet with Dale Klein, an assistant to the Secretary of Defense, who assured him the Pueblo project would be completed in a timely and environmentally sound manner. Klomp said he also met with a committee comprised of Army officials and the general contractor that is looking at alternatives to keep the project going with reduced funding.

Klomp said the group is examining alternatives that would retain the water neutralization technology but would push back the date of destruction of the mustard gas. The group is expected to release its recommendation Feb. 15.

The Pueblo Depot is one of eight U.S. facilities storing chemical weapons. The Army was ordered by Congress in 1985 to destroy the nation's stockpile, but concerns about how to do so safely led to repeated delays. Facilities in all but Colorado and Kentucky have been built and are beginning to destroy the chemical weapons.

Last year, defense officials decided the chemical agents at Pueblo will be destroyed by water neutralization rather than incineration. The decision came as a relief to many Pueblo residents because neutralization - in which the mustard gas is soaked in 180 degree water - creates no fumes or fire and few emissions.

Klomp said residents are anxious to rid themselves of the weapons, and the county is looking forward to getting the depot land back from the federal government so it can start some redevelopment projects on it.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0197 or mckeown@gazette.com