Bush plan would delay cleanup of mustard gas at Pueblo depot

By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 03, 2004 -

PUEBLO - Pueblo Chemical Depot stands to lose nearly $147 million under a preliminary federal budget released Monday, a shortfall that would delay cleanup of mustard-gas weapons for up to a year.

Pueblo Chemical Depot, which stores 2,600 tons of mustard gas, expected to receive $151.6 million for fiscal 2005.

Instead, the proposed budget released by the Bush administration would give the depot $4.9 million.

John Klomp, chairman of a statewide citizens advisory committee for the depot, said he plans to rally Colorado's congressional delegation and state officials to help restore the money for cleanup.

Construction of a plant to neutralize the mustard agent with water was expected to begin as early as late summer or fall. The Pentagon plans to spend $1.5 billion to build the plant, the largest public works project in southern Colorado since the Pueblo Reservoir was built in 1975.

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R- Colo., requested a meeting two weeks ago with Department of Defense officials to ask what criteria were used in deciding to obliterate funding for destruction of the weapons that have been stored for 50 years at the depot, 15 miles east of Pueblo.

The meeting still has not been scheduled, said Angela deRocha, spokeswoman for the senator.

Camden Hubbard, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., said the senator "will work to ensure that the Pueblo depot has a reasonable amount of funding. It's certainly going to be a tough year, but unfinished projects are especially a priority for him as an appropriator."

Maj. Sandra Burr, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, said Monday that she needed more time to answer questions about funding for the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

"People are anticipating that this is an initial budget," said Klomp, a Pueblo County commissioner, "and there will be a lot of opportunity to mediate that at the political level and that the money will be restored.

"If $147 million is a number that doesn't change, there is a serious concern about how quickly we can move to destroy these weapons - $5 million in this budget isn't going to go very far."

Nearly two years ago, the Pentagon urged Pueblo to "accelerate" the destruction of the weapons because of fear of a terrorist strike.

Last week, the advisory committee passed a resolution citing concerns about terrorism.

Craig Williams, director of Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, said the loss of the money could delay construction for nine months to a year.

"This one budget cut would delay (construction) on the order of at least nine months and if it's just the beginning of pulling money away from Pueblo's site, it could (delay it) many more," he said.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis said the Grand Junction Republican wanted to study the matter before commenting.

It was not the only Colorado project to be cut in a spending proposal that included generous increases for defense and homeland security but decreases for many domestic programs.

The Bureau of Reclamation proposed $13 million less than had been expected for the Animas-La Plata dam, even after costs for the project soared dramatically last year.

The original funding plan had called for $65 million, but the bureau is seeking only $52 million. Last year, the administration sought $58 million and Congress cut that to $52 million.

"There's never any guarantee of funding," said Reclamation Commissioner John W. Keys III.

"I don't believe that the government should dig a hole in the ground and just leave it there," said Hubbard, Campbell's spokeswoman.

Colorado's biggest project, cleanup of the shuttered Rocky Flats nuclear trigger plant, continued with the expected $654 million for the next fiscal year, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo. The federal government is spending $7 billion to clean up the site northwest of Denver by 2006.

President Bush also proposed a 14 percent increase in money to thin public forests of brush and undergrowth, which fuel catastrophic wildfires such as Colorado's 2002 Hayman fire.

Another proposed budget item with impact in Colorado is a Department of Agriculture plan to spend $60 million to protect meat from mad cow disease, almost five times as much as in 2004. Most of that increase would be used to create a national animal identification system, test for mad cow disease on the farm and at the slaughterhouse, and pay for inspectors who will monitor how well slaughterhouses are complying with new regulations.

But the USDA is also suggesting user fees to fund the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which could lead to an overall cut in the budget of that division.

Denver Post staff writers Mike Soraghan and Anne C. Mulkern contributed to this report.