Defense Environment Alert

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

Vol. 16, No. 23

November 11, 2008

CHEM DEMIL PROGRAM MAY SEE MORE FUNDING, SCRUTINY, ACTIVISTS SAY

The Defense Department's chemical weapons destruction program could see gains in funding or stepped-up environmental scrutiny with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency and key candidates to Congress, environmental activists say, although one source says it is too early to know the direction the program will take under the incoming president.

Over the years, the chemical demilitarization program has grown exponentially in cost and faced mounting schedule delays, and also encountered significant litigation from activists over destruction decisions, particularly the use of incineration. It has also experienced major budget cuts, particularly in the chemical agent neutralization program, with key congressional members weighing in to push the budgets back up to keep programs running.

With the advent of a new administration and Congress, the program is under congressional mandates to complete destruction of the nation's stockpiled chemical weapons by 2017 -- a deadline six years earlier than the date by which the last stockpile is currently expected to be eliminated. The two sites scheduled to finish destruction of weapons significantly past the 2017 date are in Lexington, KY, and Pueblo, CO, both part of DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program, which is neutralizing these stockpiles. DOD is currently considering plans to accelerate destruction at those sites, and will make public its chosen course early next year.

While one activist with the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) says it is too early to know what Obama's plans are for the program, the source says that based on the incoming president's general tenor and policies, there should be a certain degree of confidence that the program will receive what it needs to complete its mission in a timely way and that there will be a heightened sensitivity to environmental considerations. CWWG is a chemical demilitarization watchdog coalition of activists from around the country that advocate destruction of chemical weapons through non-incineration means.

A second environmentalist believes that the chemical demilitarization program will see a boost under Obama and the next Congress, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a strong advocate of sufficient funding for the ACWA program, retaining his Senate seat after a hard-fought campaign. The source believes funding will be increased to help the program try to achieve the 2017 deadline, and also believes Obama will give greater support than President Bush to the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, which supplies money to help demilitarize Russia's stockpile of chemical weapons. The source thinks Obama will be more supportive of the international regime that monitors compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the treaty that established deadlines for chemical weapons stockpile destruction.

The source makes the case for these changes under an Obama administration by pointing to his support of non-proliferation measures. Obama, along with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), sponsored legislation that was signed into law in 2007 to expand the CTR program to aid former Soviet-bloc countries to get rid of old stockpiles of conventional weapons leftover from the Cold War, and to help other countries halt the transfer of weapons of mass destruction.

The source also believes Obama has been supportive of multi-lateral organizations to address regional and global security issues. It follows then that the new president would be supportive of international obligations made by the United States and international organizations such as inspection and verification regimes like that used to implement the CWC, the source says.

Nonetheless, the source says chemical demilitarization is generally considered a lesser priority for funding during wartime. The "big elephant in the room is the budget," the source says.

Bush has been "extremely reluctant" to increase money for the chemical demilitarization program, the source says. Funds for ACWA in fiscal year 2009, however, were the highest ever, the CWWG source points out, noting that that could be indicative of what the FYI 0 budget will look like, which is being formulated by the Bush administration.

McConnell's win also is considered a "positive step forward" for the program, the second environmentalist source says. McConnell has been a long time advocate of ensuring the chemical demilitarization program is receiving sufficient funding. Congressional delegations that have been watchdogs to the program remain in office, and Mark Udall, a Democrat newly elected to a Senate Colorado seat, will likely "hit the ground running" on this issue, the CWWG source says, noting that Udall was "very engaged" on the issue when he served in the House.