Defense Environment Alert 02/22/04

Defense Environment Alert

an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention

Vol. 13, No. 4--February 22, 2005

COLORADO SENATORS URGE DOD TO RELEASE FUNDS FOR PUEBLO FACILITY

Colorado's Senate delegation is urging DOD's top acquisition official to release funds Congress specifically appropriated for constructing the Pueblo, CO, chemical weapons destruction plant after DOD virtually froze work there.

The pressure from Sens. Wayne Allard (R) and Ken Salazar (D) responds to DOD's contention that tight budgets are forcing the department to forgo work at facilities still in the design phase, such as Pueblo, while funding existing operating destruction plants. The senators' push adds to ongoing concerns they and others have voiced in recent months over DOD plans to underfund and reevaluate work at the chemical weapons destruction sites in Colorado and Kentucky (Defense Environment Alert, Jan. 25, pIO).

"It is unconscionable to me that the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to delay this project when the Congress has provided ample funding during the past two appropriations cycles," Allard said in a Feb. 9 statement. More delay will increase destruction costs at Pueblo and jeopardize international treaty obligations as well as safety for local residents, he said. In fiscal year 2005, Allard was able to insert $50 million for Pueblo's facility into the appropriations bill, despite DOD's original budget request that nearly zeroed out funding for the project (Defense Environment Alert, Oct. 19, 2004, p8).

Allard and Salazar cite concern over DOD acquisition chief Michael W. Wynne's assertion in a Feb. 3 letter that DOD cannot proceed with construction at Pueblo because "conducting operations at existing destruction facilities must take precedence over on-going work at sites still in the design phase, given the Department's limited financial resources," they say, quoting from the letter.

"You make this argument despite the fact that in the last two Department of Defense appropriations bills, Congress has provided significant funding resources for the Pueblo project, including the $50 million in research and development funds added to the president's FY05 budget request by Senator Allard," the senators say in a Feb. 9 letter to Wynne.

Much of these appropriations have not been expended and could be applied toward early construction at the site, while not obligating DOD to a specific demilitarization design, they say.

"As such, we request that you release these funds so construction can continue."

Allard in his statement also warned that the senators would "oppose any attempt to shift this funding to other chemical weapons demilitarization sites. We will need every dollar, and then some, to complete this project without further delays." Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2for details.

In his Feb. 3 letter, Wynne says early construction work for Pueblo has been suspended, but that "all appropriated FY05 research, development, test and evaluation funds, including the $50 million specifically addressed for the [Pueblo plant] in the FY05 Defense Authorization Conference Report, have been provided to the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives [ACWA] Program for the [plant]."

And a DOD spokeswoman says FY04-appropriated funds are now being used in FY05 for the two ACWA sites. "These funds have not been withheld," she says. The ACWA program will likely use FY05-appropriated funds for the two sites both this year and in future years, she adds.

The senators' push comes as a chemical weapons demilitarization program watchdog is claiming that the Pentagon has, however, frozen more than $400 million in funds that have already been appropriated for the Pueblo and Blue Grass, KY, destruction facilities - the two sites that comprise the ACWA program. ACWA relies on non-incineration methods for destroying assembled chemical munitions. DOD in recent months has made the ACWA sites a lower funding priority.

Wynne in his letter cites unexpected high costs related to the Pueblo site. "Because of the unacceptably high costs of the proposed design at Pueblo, I have directed the Program Manager to develop potential alternatives that are safe, cost effective and within our fiscal resources. These potential alternatives may include consolidation of the chemical weapons, re-defining our requirement in terms of performance, cost and schedule, as well as seeking competition for future work to be done at the Pueblo facility," Wynne says.

But the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a long-time advocate of non-incineration destruction methods, says it believes it has identified more than $400 million in appropriations for the ACWA sites that DOD is not releasing. A CWWG spokesman says this estimate is based on budget justification figures for ACWA from FY02 through FY05 and corresponding congressional appropriations. CWWG has compared what ACWA has expended and any funds that have expired with the appropriations that were made, which shows about $400 million in carryover dollars for the program. But CWWG argues that DOD is apparently planning to use such funds to pay for disposal projects at other sites facing cost overruns.