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


Vol. 13, No. 9--May 3, 2005


DOD RELEASES REQUESTED ACWA FUNDS BUT RETAINS WEAPON TRANSPORT OPTION

DOD has unexpectedly released fiscal year 2005 funds sought by the Senate to force the Army to begin work on its long-delayed Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative (ACWA) program, but appears to be leaving open the option of transporting the weapons to incinerators - a move that is barred by federal law and opposed by key senators.

In an April 15 memo, Acting Undersecretary for Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics Michael Wynne gave ACWA program manager access to more than $302 million that DOD had previously withheld. Wynne also ordered the ACWA program manager to "employ all available funds" to submit a recommendation for ACWA design by May 15, and to critical review the design systems to gather information for an early start proposal and risk assessment. The memo is available on InsideEPA. com. See page 2 for details.

DOD plans to present design concepts to Congress in early June, according to Wynne's April 11 testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee.

DOD's decision to release the funds represents a major policy shift. In January, DOD had been considering slashing funds for ACWA despite the looming 2012 deadline for destruction of all chemical weapons under the United Nations' Chemical Weapons' Convention (CWC). The program, which Congress intended to destroy stockpiled weapons using non-incineration technologies, governs weapons stockpiles at the Blue Grass depot in Kentucky and in Pueblo. While the program enjoys strong support from Kentucky and Colorado lawmakers, military officials argue that technological alternatives to incineration are not available.

DOD's resistance to releasing the funds fueled speculation that DOD intended to neglect the ACWA program, in favor of incineration, a destruction method environmentalists and key Republican senators consider unsafe (Defense Environment Alert, Jan. 25, p10).

One of those senators, Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-KY), recently inserted an amendment into an emergency spending bill ordering DOD to release the funds and stop consideration of plans to transport the weapons to other sites - where opponents believe DOD would incinerate the weapons (Defense Environment Alert, April 18 p5).

While the House has not yet approved the provision, McConnell and other transportation opponents have secured seats on the bicameral conference committee that will reconcile the competing bills.

Opposition to transportation is also strong in the House. At an April 6 hearing of a House Armed Services subcommittee, Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) called transportation "the nuclear option," explaining that if DOD chose to transport the stockpiles, residents near the Blue Grass depot would be upset.

Critics say Wynne's memo appears to leave open the option that DOD will consider transporting the stockpiles in the future. Wynne states that the program manager need not to consider transportation "at this time," raising questions among critics about whether the option could resurface in the future.

A DOD spokesman declined to provide further comment on the transportation option.

However, a spokesman for the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a citizens' watchdog organization, says transportation is all but certainly a dead issue, despite the memo's language

The source points out the Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) is still working on a report assessing the range of disposal options for the Pueblo and Blue Grass stockpiles, including transportation. Wynne likely does not want to pre-empt the report by taking any options off the table, the source says.

"The equivocating language in that memo is based. . . on Wynne being a captive of his own process," the source says.

A CMA spokesman confirms that work on the report continues as planned. " [Wynne's] memo has been interpreted to mean that the assessment of alternatives directed to the Army by OSD has been discontinued," the spokesman said in a press statement. "Let me assure you that this is not the case. We here at CMA have not received any changes from OSD concerning the tasking and until such direction is received, CMA will continue its progress to making the report to OSD as directed."

"[Transportation] has got about as much chance as Osama bin Laden getting picked as Man of the Year for Time magazine," the CWWG source says.