Defense Environment Alert
October 7, 2003

BACKING CITIZENS, DOD OPTS FOR ON-SITE DISPOSAL AT PUEBLO FACILITY

In support of the local community's views, the Defense Department's alternative chemical weapons disposal program has decided to dismiss any further consideration of shipping neutralized chemical weapons off-site from its Pueblo, CO, facility for further treatment and disposal.

"I agree with the decision to drop from consideration the two options that involved shipment of explosive components off-site," says DOD Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) Program Manager Michael A. Parker in a Sept. 10 letter. "The safety concerns about handling this material, I believe, outweighed the benefits associated with cost or schedule."

Also, he says shipping off-site 3X treated metal parts would not have been cost effective. The letter is to John Klomp, who chairs the governor-appointed Citizens Advisory Commission (CAQ that makes recommendations on chemical demilitarization matters. The 3X designation refers to a decontamination level for metal that has been in contact with chemical agent. The letter is available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details.

Parker says input from the CAC and local community "weighed heavily in the decision process." At issue was whether to ship neutralized chemical weapons, known as hydrolysate, off-site for further treatment and disposal. The ACWA program plans to neutralize stockpiled chemical weapons on-site at a facility being built in Pueblo, CO, but under direction from higher ups, it had investigated ways to destroy the weapons more quickly.

Among these options was to ship off site secondary chemical weapons waste and items that had never been contaminated with agent, such as wood pallets. The CAC and community members told ACWA in August that they opposed off-site shipment of the hydrolysate, noting among other things that ACWA had not considered several possible sources of costs and delays with such a move (Defense Environment Alert, Sept. 9, p9).

While it appears, under ideal conditions, that shipping energetic and agent hydrolysate off site would save time and money for the program, "the totality of the factors from our experience at other demil sites and the higher confidence of schedule stability with on-site treatment, leads me to a conclusion that on-site treatment offers the best value," Parker says.

The CAC and community, on the other hand, expressed support for off-site shipment of uncontaminated wood pallets and propellant, provided ACWA and regulators can develop a reliable method to determine whether these items are free of chemical agent, and, in the case of propellant, stable.

Parker says ACWA plans to pursue shipping the pallets and propellant off site, under the CAC-requested conditions. Parker cites the potential cost and schedule savings that are expected to result. It would also lessen the burden on the Pueblo demilitarization facility to process these items, he says. The disposal contractor at Pueblo will work with regulators to develop a method to ensure no contaminated pallets or propellant are sent off site, he says.