Following months of controversy, the Pentagon has dropped its plans to transport chemical weapons to Utah for incineration.

Friday, Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne released the money appropriated to build facilities that will destroy the dangerous weapons at the sites they now are stored.

The money had been held up in red tape while the Defense Department studied the possibility of shipping chemical weapons to Utah.

The move frees about $300 million to build chemical neutralization plants in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky., during 2005. More money is expected to be appropriated next year.

Utah delegation members Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Matheson, as well as Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., had spoken out against the plan to ship more than 780,000 chemical weapons filled with more than 5 million pounds of mustard gas to Utah from Colorado.

"If our elected representatives had not spoken out, the feds would still be studying ways to force-feed us this nasty brew of chemical weapons," said Jason Groenewold, Director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

The chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele has been burning chemical weapons since 1996. Only half the stockpile that was to be incinerated by 2004 has thus far been destroyed.

Army officials now say it will be at least 2007 before Utah's stockpile is gone.

"This is a tremendous development and a win for the citizens who would be negatively affected by this absurd plan," said Craig Williams, director of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, which in January uncovered the plans that considered moving the weapons to Utah.