Defense Environment Alert
March 12, 2002

COLORADO GOVERNOR ENDORSES NEUTRALIZATION FOR PUEBLO STOCKPILE

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (R) is advising the Defense Department to choose neutralization over incineration for disposing of stockpiled chemical weapons in the state. Owens' endorsement joins other recent calls by Colorado politicians to use a neutralization technology on the weapons and follows a long debate between the Army and environmentalists over what method to apply.

"It is clear that the community prefers neutralization followed by biodegradation," Owens writes in a Feb. 25 letter to DOD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics E.C. "Pete" Aldridge. "I urge you to honor the community preference." Owens' letter is available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details.

The plea comes on the eve of a decision by the Defense Department over what destruction technology the Army should use to destroy 2,611 tons of mustard-filled chemical weapons in Pueblo, CO. Aldridge chairs a board set to make a final decision on the technology selection soon. The Army chemical demilitarization program has touted modified baseline incineration for the job, while environmentalists have pushed for a non-incineration method.

The Pueblo stockpile is one of two sites where Congress barred spending appropriations on construction of a baseline incineration facility until the effectiveness of alternative chemical demilitarization technologies had been examined. The Army is now finishing up an environmental impact analysis that evaluates the potential environmental impacts of four different disposal methods, including both incineration and neutralization technologies.

"Now that testing is complete, we are anxious for your decision on the technology so that weapons destruction can begin without further delay," Owens says.

Also pressing for employing neutralization is the Colorado Senate, which in February passed a resolution encouraging DOD to apply a neutralization method followed by biotreatment for the site's chemical weapons. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) in December similarly wrote a letter to Aldridge, backing neutralization/biodegradation (Defense Environment Alert, Jan. 15, p 11). And a number of different forums in Colorado have endorsed the method, including the Pueblo County Commissioners, Pueblo city council members, the Chemical Demilitarization Citizens' Advisory Commission, environmental and citizens groups, and local Chamber of Commerce organizations, Owens says.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and a construction union in Colorado are warning the Army against shipping neutralized wastes at Pueblo off-site for secondary treatment. The Army has decided to neutralize on-site bulk chemical agent at the Aberdeen, MD, stockpile, but then, in an effort to speed destruction, ship the resulting waste off-site for treatment at a commercial treatment, storage and disposal facility instead of at an on-site Army plant (Dqknse Environment Alert, Jan. 15, p3). Groups in Colorado though say they don't want the same thing to occur at the Pueblo site.

"Please be aware that we do not support the new Aberdeen approach for handling the secondary wastes associated with destruction of mustard agent weapons here in Pueblo," the Sierra Club's Sangre de Cristo Group writes in a Feb. 22 letter to Army Assistant Secretary for Installations & Environment Mario Fiori. "We have supported and continue to support on-site management of all wastes resulting from the destruction of the weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot." Among the reasons the group cites is that Pueblo doesn't want to "dump our waste problems on some other community.

The Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council similarly wrote a letter to Fiori Feb. 5, also advocating against transporting secondary hazardous waste from the site. "It is extremely unfair to expect Pueblo to deal with the difficult and dangerous task of destroying the weapons and then deprive the local workforce of the safer jobs with the greatest potential for long term benefits associated with processing the secondary waste," the council writes. The council represents over 20,000 members in the union construction trades in Colorado.