A research facility at Deseret Chemical Depot near Stockton,
Tooele County, will close by October 2007, costing 130 jobs.
Meanwhile, the depot's drive to incinerate chemical weapons is
not affected by the country's probable failure to meet its treaty
obligations by destroying all such munitions by 2012.
Officials of the Army Chemical Material Agency, of which the
depot is a part, informed workers on Nov. 14 that the Chemical Agent
Munitions Disposal System will be closing by next October. Another 370
workers will remain at the depot.
Since the 1970s, the depot's CAMDS plant has been an important
test and development facility for chemical agent destruction.
Deseret Chemical Depot is one of the bases identified in 2005 for
closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It is
tentatively slated to close by 2012, although the money could be
available to operate until 2016 if necessary, said spokeswoman Alaine
Southworth.
"We're a BRAC base," Southworth said. "We're on the BRAC list and we
have always know that CAMDS would close first." Meantime, CAMDS will
continue "with a much, much smaller mission, segregating hazardous
waste for us."
Not all CAMDS workers are expected to lose jobs, as some may be
able to move into slots opening at the depot while others could bump
people with lower seniority. Some are likely to retire.
Contractors from the Tennessee Valley Authority will help close CAMDS.
Chemical Weapons Working Group, based in Berea, Ky., distributed
copies of a recent Army briefing on the status of the nationwide effort
to destroy chemical weapons. In April, after officials realized they
could not meet a 2007 deadline, they requested an extension to 2012.
But that deadline won't be met, according to the briefing by Jean Reed,
special assistant in the Defense Department.
The document shows that plants at Pueblo Chemical Depot, Colo.,
and Blue Grass Army Depot, Ky., will complete operations by November
2020 and October 2023, respectively -- long after the deadline.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Craig Williams, director
of the working group, commenting by e-mail. Putting tens of thousands
of people at risk by continuing to store the weapons is reprehensible,
he added.
But while Pueblo and Blue Grass are delayed by the new timetable,
apparently the Utah incinerator is not.
"This new schedule really doesn't affect Deseret Chemical Depot
at all," Southworth said. "It only pertains to the two sites that have
chosen neutralization to destroy their chemical weapons stockpile, and
that's Blue Grass and Pueblo."
At Deseret Chemical Depot this August, workers began using the
Army's $1 billion incinerator to destroy mustard agent. Operations
slowed as they found some of the aging bulk containers had developed
"heels" of coagulated agent over the decades.
Planners would like to drain mustard agent and send it to the
liquid incinerator. But in some one-ton containers, the heels prevented
draining so the material is being destroyed in the metal parts furnace.
Workers are learning how long to leave the material in each section of
the furnace, she said.
"Because of that, we had to ask for additional shakedown time."
Southworth said. She added that the incinerator will comply with all
permit requirements during the period.
