Deseret News
November 2, 2003


Delays likely at arms plant
Depot should finish burning chemicals by '08


By Lee Davidson
Deseret Morning News
      WASHINGTON — The Army warns that more delays are possible for its embattled program to destroy chemical arms, which is already years behind schedule and has skyrocketed in cost from $1.7 billion to $25 billion.
      It says it still hopes to complete all arms destruction by 2011 — or four years beyond the current 2007 deadline set by international treaty. That treaty, however, allows one five-year extension to 2012.
      Of Utah note, its Deseret Chemical Depot originally stored 44 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical arms, or 13,616 tons. The Army reports that Deseret has incinerated about 44 percent of its stockpile so far and is scheduled to destroy all of it by February 2008.
      Despite the extension of the deadline, the Deseret Chemical Depot expects to have 100 percent of stockpiled agents destroyed by 2008, said depot spokesman Chuck Sprague, barring any unforeseen delays.
      Sprague said the depot is currently destroying the nerve agent VX, and will complete VX destruction by as early as late summer 2004. After that it will take several months to retool the facility to begin destruction of mustard agent, which is a blistering agent. Sprague said despite having incinerated 44 percent of its stockpile, the Deseret Chemical Depot still holds the nation's largest stockpile.
      "We will get this job done no matter what challenges we face," said Michael Parker, director of the new Chemical Materials Agency, which combined various agencies with overlapping jurisdiction to try to help streamline arms destruction oversight.
      While he told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that new, more realistic projections show chemical destruction at all eight destruction sites nationally is possible by 2011, challenges are looming that could cause additional delays.
      For example, he said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new, lower limits for airborne exposure to nerve agents (which Deseret is in the process of incinerating).
      "These new more stringent limits will require us to monitor for these chemical agents at much lower levels than we have previously," Parker said.
      "Although we have technology that is capable of detecting chemical agent at these extremely low levels, it is proven only in a laboratory environment and application to a plant setting will be problematic," he said.
      "Under operating conditions, there are many chemicals that are not chemical warfare agent that interfere with chemical agent monitors. The lower our monitoring levels, the higher the probability of of interference that causes false alarms. More false alarms slow operations and lower confidence in the monitoring program," he said.
      "We are working to meet this challenge," Parker added.
      Patrick J. Wakefield, deputy assistant to the secretary of Defense, added that several other challenges loom that could bring more delays.
      "New environmental permitting and monitoring requirements can influence our program," and requirements for emergency preparedness programs in communities near destruction sites are growing, he said. "We also face continued opposition from special interest groups through litigation."
      He also warned that "accidents and safety incidents may occur, sometimes crippling our destruction efforts." For example, when a plant worker at Deseret came into contact with nerve agent during routine maintenance, that plant was shut down from July 2002 to March 2003 to find causes and implement corrective action.
      "I want to emphasize . . . that our primary consideration is safety to the public as well as the work force," Wakefield said.
      Wakefield and Parker pleaded for full funding for the arms destruction program, saying lack of funding has also contributed to delays through the years.
      Wakefield also said that just last week, an international board approved extending a deadline for the United States to have completed destroying 45 percent of its agent from 2004 to 2007. Wakefield said he is confident that new deadline can be met.
      He said the United States plans to ask later that the deadline for completing all chemical destruction be moved from the currently required 2007 to 2012. Current schedules, if worried-about delays do not materialize, would allow just barely meeting that extended deadline.
      The General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress, reported that other nations are also having trouble meeting the deadlines. Russia, for example, has missed all its deadlines so far, and only began destroying its stockpile last December.