Washington - President Bush is proposing sharp cuts for the Pueblo Chemical Depot, stoking fears that the military is planning to scrap plans to build a high-tech facility to destroy the mustard-gas weapons in Pueblo.

The Bush administration requested no money Monday in its budget proposal for the next fiscal year for construction of the $1.6 billion facility to neutralize the 780,000 mustard-gas shells in Pueblo.

It asked for a 77 percent cut in the Pentagon program that includes the depot.

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said the military is leaving Pueblo residents "in limbo" and reneging on a promise.

"The work is already in progress, and more than $15 million a year has been spent," Salazar said. "A process was in place that all parties agreed to, and we must finish out what was started."

A Pentagon spokeswoman didn't respond to requests for comment by press time.

The Defense Department is studying alternatives, including the possibility of transporting the munitions through Colorado to another site for disposal.

Although the Department of Defense requested no money for destroying the mustard gas in Pueblo, it did request $118 million for military construction in Colorado, mostly on projects at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs.

In addition, the Bureau of Reclamation has asked for $52 million for the $500 million Animas-La Plata dam near Durango that has already seen cost overruns. There's also $16 million for replacements and repairs at the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

President Bush proposed a decrease in environmental spending, including a 5.6 percent cut at the Environmental Protection Agency and 1 percent at the Department of the Interior.

Activists said the proposed cut demonstrates his lack of commitment to the environment. But James Connaughton, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the reductions came from eliminating funding that Congress added last year over the administration's request.

One increase in the budget is an 8 percent boost in funding for the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas program to speed permits for drilling on public land.

One specific target of the Bush administration's cost-cutting was the extensive system of U.S. farm and commodity support programs. Overall, the president proposed to shrink the Agriculture Department budget by 10 percent from last year.

Most notably, the administration wants to reduce crop and dairy payments to all farmers by 5 percent and to cap federal subsidies for any one farmer at $250,000, to save nearly $600 million.

A third of Colorado's 30,000 farms receive government subsidies, according to a database of agricultural support payments maintained by the Environmental Working Group. Only one or two Colorado farms, however, would be affected by the $250,000 cap.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., issued a statement Monday that criticized the president for cutting veterans' benefits and rural health care services, but the senator supported Bush's attempts to "reduce the amount of payments to nonfamily farms."

The administration also wants to raise the required level of minimum crop insurance coverage and to compel farmers to buy adequate crop insurance by making it a condition for receiving federal commodity payments. Such changes could save the government $140 million a year, it said.

The Agriculture Department hopes to save another $115 million over three years by consolidating Forest Service administrative jobs at a single services center in Albuquerque and to save more money through the sale of "unneeded" facilities. The total Forest Service budget would shrink from $4.7 billion in 2004 to $4 billion in 2006.

Denver Post Washington Bureau chief John Aloysius Farrell contributed to this report.

Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.