Defense Environment Alert
March 26, 2002

DOD NEARING DECISION ON SELECTING TECHNOLOGY FOR PUEBLO STOCKPILE

The Defense Department is closing in on a long-awaited decision to choose a technology for the destruction of stockpiled chemical weapons at the Army's Pueblo, CO, site. A high-level DOD board recently forwarded its recommendation on which technology to employ to DOD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, who is expected to make a final decision soon, a DOD spokesman says. DOD, however, will not release the board's recommendation.

The final decision will determine whether the Army will be forced to move in the direction of adopting a nonincineration method in place of its general preference to use incineration to destroy assembled chemical weapons.

Program managers overseeing incineration operations and alternative destruction technology testing briefed a high-level Defense Department board March 14, each recommending different technologies for the Pueblo site, according to a source at the briefing. The board is part of a lengthy technology selection process being used for Pueblo. At the March 14 meeting, the program manager for the Army's chemical demilitarization program and the program manager for the assembled chemical weapons assessment (ACWA) program briefed a panel chaired by Anna Johnson-Winegar, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense. The panel is known as the overarching integrated product team (OIPT) and is comprised of officials from various DOD and Army offices. The OIPT is part of a process to advise on critical decisions concerning acquisition programs, according to DOD. The OIPT has now sent its technology recommendation for Pueblo on to Aldridge.

The program manager for the ACWA program, Mike Parker, recommended that neutralization followed by biotreatment be used to destroy the 2,611 tons of mustard agent-filled munitions at Pueblo, according to the source at the meeting. The technology is one of the non-incineration methods tested by the ACWA program and has recently gained broad support by Colorado politicians and the community in Pueblo. The program manager for chemical demilitarization (PMCD), James Bacon, recommended that a modified version of the Army's baseline destruction method, incineration, be employed at Pueblo, the source says. This source believes that a final decision will be based on cost, schedule and politics. According to DOD's public affairs office, Aldridge's decision will depend on a variety of factors, including an environmental impact statement, budget, laws and regulations, public input, political concerns, independent assessments, treaty implications and mission needs.

Sources say that Aldridge's final decision will be included in a record of decision (ROD) issued at the end of the National Environmental Policy Act process. The ROD will contain the environmentally preferred preference, the source who attended the briefing says. Prior to issuance of the ROD, an environmental impact statement conducted by the Army will review the environmental impacts of each of the four technologies examined for Pueblo. While sources say the two documents could differ in support of a preferred technology, a PMCD spokesman says there is ongoing discussion aimed at having the two make the same recommendations.

In 1996, Congress barred spending appropriations on construction of a baseline incineration facility at Pueblo and at the Army's stockpile in Lexington, KY, until the effectiveness of alternative demilitarization technologies had been examined.