Defense Environment Alert

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

Vol. 17, No. 9

April 28, 2009

DOD PUSHING FOR FUNDING BOOST TO SPEED CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION

Defense Department chemical demilitarization officials are proposing to boost the budget for the long-scrutinized chemical destruction program over the next six years in an effort to finish destruction of the last two chemical weapons stockpile sites closer to a 2017 congressional deadline for destruction, according to an informed source.

Officials with DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program in late January briefed senior congressional staff, suggesting increases of upwards of $200 million annually for the fiscal years 2010 to 2015 budget for the two ACWA sites, for a total increase of $1.2 billion over that span, according to the source. The money would go toward accelerating destruction at the last two stockpile sites scheduled to finish chemical demilitarization--Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, CO, and Blue Grass Army Depot in Lexington, KY.

Under the current budgeting plan, the Pueblo site is scheduled to finish destruction in 2020, while the Blue Grass site is slated to complete destruction in 2023.

But those dates are several years past a mandate set by Congress for the United States to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile. The Pentagon has previously stated it will not be able to meet a 2012 deadline set in an international treaty for destroying the country's chemical weapons stockpiles, but Congress in fiscal year 2008 defense laws called for DOD to nonetheless meet a deadline of 2017. The defense legislation also prompted DOD to undertake an effort to formally assess the options for accelerating destruction of the stockpile, which is located across a number of sites around the country.

Last June, DOD released a report that considered various acceleration options as well as maintaining the status quo at the ACWA sites, and promised further evaluation of an acceleration option that would increase personnel and boost operations to run continuously. That evaluation, which is coming out in an overdue semi-annual report to Congress on the chemical demilitarization program, is slated to soon be released in conjunction with the president's delayed fiscal year 2010 budget request, according to the ACWA program.

Congressional staffers were briefed in late January on a new funding guidance that would enable acceleration of chemical weapons destruction at these sites, according to the informed source. The changes would "reverse the downward trend" in ACWA funding and "eliminate the dip" in the FYI 1 budget, the source says, citing the briefing. As a result, this new funding strategy would allow the Blue Grass site to finish destruction in 2021, and Pueblo in 2017, the source says.

Chemical weapons at Blue Grass and Pueblo are being neutralized under the ACWA program, which launched at a later date than the program governing the rest of the stockpile, most of which is being incinerated. ACWA program officials have been frustrated over the lack of funding for the program in order to meet the 2017 congressional mandate, the informed source says. Over the history of the ACWA program, DOD has requested a budget for ACWA that drastically dipped and then rebounded somewhat, as its level of priority fluctuated.

In early 2007, the Pentagon announced it would limit budgets for ACWA and stretch the timeline, leading to greater costs over the long run while bowing to other competing budgetary items in the short term. But now the program looks to be rebounding. In addition to the newest pending proposal for boosted funding, in early 2008 Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in response to pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY),advocated a $50 million boost in the ACWA budget for fiscal year 2009.

While the total cost of the ACWA program, like the rest of the chemical weapons stockpile destruction program, has jumped significantly overtime, ACWA is predicting that a boost in upfront funding now to accelerate destruction at the two sites will end up costing less over the long-term than the status quo option, according to the informed source. The ACWA program's total costs are expected to be about $8.2 billion, the source says.

The congressional briefing also posited a highly controversial option dubbed "Cross-Leveling," which would allow for transporting all of the Blue Grass stockpile for destruction at an existing incinerator site in Anniston, AL. ACWA managers argued this would further save money over the long-term and finish destruction at Blue Grass in 2015, the source says. But congressional staff rejected the idea as "dead on arrival," particularly given it is currently illegal to ship chemical weapons or agent across state lines, the source says. Citizen activists have also long been
strongly against such options.

A spokeswoman for ACWA would not confirm the ACWA funding proposal briefed to congressional staff or other details, citing limits on what can be said until the president releases the FYI 0 budget request. She did say that ACWA continues to pursue acceleration of the schedule for the program, and that decisions regarding acceleration will be included in DOD's upcoming chemical demilitarization program semi-annual report to Congress, to be released in concert with the FYI 0 budget request.

The informed source says discussions are still ongoing as to whether ACWA will send neutralized chemical agent off-site for secondary processing, or do the work on-site -- a decision being closely watched by activists, who generally favor on-site destruction.

In related news, President Obama April 14 nominated Andrew C. Weber to be assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. Weber has a strong background in biological weapons-related issues as an adviser in DOD's Cooperative Threat Reduction program. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and previously a foreign service officer with the State Department, according to his biography.