Defense Environment Alert
July 30, 2002

SENATORS REQUIRE DOD TO MANAGE CHEMICAL WEAPONS DISPOSAL IN CO, KY

Senate appropriators have approved legislative language stipulating that a Defense Department office that backs non-incineration destruction technologies manage chemical weapons disposal activities in Colorado and Kentucky rather than an Army office that is an incineration proponent.

The move comes as the Pentagon has officially chosen a non-incineration destruction method for stockpiled chemical weapons in Pueblo, CO, but has not clarified whether DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program, which backs alternatives to incineration, will have full management control instead of an Army office that is proponent of incineration.

The Pentagon is currently in the midst of deciding which technology to use for stockpiled weapons in Kentucky, but a governor-appointed citizens advisory panel in June, and the Kentucky congressional delegation this month, have both endorsed using a non-incineration technology (Dqfense Environnient Alert, July 16, p5). Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA. com. Seepage 2 for details.

Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) inserted the language into the fiscal year 2003 defense appropriations bill at July 16 subcommittee markup. The full committee approved the bill July 18 without amending the chemical weapons destruction language. The measure says that ACWA "shall be responsible for management of the construction, operation, and closure, and any contracting relating thereto, of chemical demilitarization activities at Pueblo Army Depot, CO, including management of the pilot-scale facility phase of the alternative technology selected for the destruction of lethal chemical munitions."

Report language attached to the bill says the requirement is necessary to ensure "transparent and efficient management of this vital effort."

The bill also says that if a non-incineration technology is chosen for the Blue Grass Army Depot, KY, then ACWA will also have the same management responsibilities as at Pueblo.

Environmentalists and weapons disposal watchdog groups praised McConnell and Campbell's actions, which came after heavy lobbying to have the senators include the language. "Sen. McConnell has stepped up to the plate again," Craig Williams, director of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, said in a July 16 statement. "He is making sure that the safer technologies, we hope are selected here, are managed by the same people that demonstrated their viability -- people we trust."

McConnell, in 1997 defense legislation, created the ACWA program and prevented the Army from incinerating the weapons in Colorado and Kentucky until alternative technologies could be tested.

Earlier this month, McConnell and Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), along with local and state elected officials in Colorado and environmentalists, wrote letters to DOD acquisition chief E.C. "Pete" Aldridge urging him to clarify that ACWA would have a clear, unilateral management authority over disposal operations at Pueblo. The letters, to varying degrees, all cited the Pueblo community's trust and support of ACWA officials and the community's belief that the Army's incineration management office has not demonstrated commitment to transparency in its decisions nor in its relationships with local officials (Defense Environment Alert, July 16, p5).

The final acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) signed July 16 by Aldridge officially chooses neutralization followed by biotreatment as the destruction method for the Pueblo, stockpile, a move that was widely anticipated. But despite the heavy lobbying for unilateral decisionmaking authority for ACWA, the ADM calls on "the Army and the Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment" to expedite disposal of the stockpile due to national security concerns, complete any necessary National Environmental Policy Act analyses, and continue to work with the community to identify ways to reduce schedule and cost.