Defense Environment Alert 05/18/04

Defense Environment Alert

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

Vol. 12, No. 10--May 18, 2004

SENATE COMMITTEE RESTORES FUNDING FOR PUEBLO CHEM DEMIL

The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to restore full funding to the Army's chemical demilitarization campaign at the Army's Pueblo, CO, facility, rejecting the Defense Department's budget request to distribute nearly all of the planned funding for Pueblo to other sites. The committee added $147 million to Pueblo's $4.8 million budget in its May 6 markup of the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization bill.

"The DOD's earlier funding request was inadequate and contrary to the stated goal of the Department of Defense's Chemical Weapons Demilitarization program: the accelerated destruction of our chemical weapons stock- pile by 2012," Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) said in a May 7 press release. "But I prevailed on the Committee to give the Pueblo Depot project the high-priority funding status it deserves."

The Defense Department and Army, in an attempt to pay for chemical demilitarization costs at other sites, earlier this year supported a decision to request just $4.9 million for research and development (R&D) at the Pueblo chemical agent disposal facility in the FY05 budget request, a figure $147 million below the level the Army had projected for the site a year ago. Most of Pueblo's funding comes from the R&D budget line, and the move prompted an outcry from Colorado and Kentucky's senators and citizen activists (Defense Environment Alert, March 9, p6).

The committee in report language expressed concern that the budget request for Pueblo was insufficient to fulfill the United States' obligations under an international treaty to destroy stockpiled chemical weapons by an extended deadline of 2012. "In addition, any delay in execution of this program unnecessarily prolongs the risk that a chemical weapons storage site could be the target of a terrorist attack, and increases the risk of a weapon leak or accident," the committee says. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details.

The lack of funding for Pueblo could have delayed the destruction schedule at the site by six months to two years, citizen activists have said.

A Defense Department spokeswoman says the funding boost at Pueblo would not affect appropriations for destruction plans at other chemical demilitarization sites since the earmark for Pueblo is an addition.

"Once again, Congress has had to rescue the nation's chemical weapons disposal efforts from colossal mismanagement by self-serving bureaucrats at the Pentagon," Colorado Citizens Advisory Commission member Ross Vincent said in a May 7 press release distributed by the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG). "This should not be necessary. If the Pentagon would simply support us instead of interfering, here in Pueblo we'll get rid of the weapons safely and quickly."

CWWG says the restored funding for Pueblo also aids destruction of chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, which is using a similar neutralization process to destroy weapons. "Delays in the Colorado process would have negatively affected the design and schedule for the Kentucky facility," CWWG says in the release.

Allard plans to meet with DOD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics & Technology Michael Wynne to discuss getting the chemical demilitarization program "back on track," Allard's release says.