LATEST NEWS
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Government removes
option of hauling chemical weapons
By The Associated
Press and the East Oregonian
eonews@eastoregonian.com
DENVER — The U.S. Defense
Department is no longer considering hauling chemical weapons to incinerators
in other states. Instead it will release at least $300 million to destroy
chemical weapons stockpiles at depots in Colorado and Kentucky.
In a letter to Congress released Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense
Michael Wynne said project managers have been asked to develop budgets with
a goal of meeting a 2012 international treaty deadline to destroy the weapons.
Managers were told moving munitions is not on the table “at this time.”
Money earmarked in the 2005 budget to destroy munitions at the Pueblo
Chemical Depot and Blue Grass Depot in Kentucky had been frozen as the Pentagon
studied less expensive alternatives, mainly shipping the weapons across state
lines to existing incinerators.
That possibility was not well received at communities where chemical
weapons incinerators already are operating. The city councils in Hermiston
and Umatilla passed resolutions opposing moving more weapons to the Umatilla
Chemical Depot, and Gov. Kulongoski publically opposed the plan.
Members of Congress from Oregon, as well as Colorado and Kentencky,
criticized that proposal as well.The Pueblo and Blue Grass depots are the
only sites where disposal facilities have not yet been built.
“This was an unnecessary study whose purpose was just to delay the
Kentucky and Colorado sites,” Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said in a statement,
adding that the change in position “is the right decision and it is time
to move forward with destroying the weapons as soon as possible.”
Allard and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said federal law prohibits
shipping chemical weapons across state lines, but the Pentagon intended to
try to change the law.
At the Pueblo depot, plans call for using water and other liquids
to neutralize about 2,600 tons of mustard agent stored in 780,000 weapons.
The Kentucky site also will use water neutralization.
Earlier this year, a Pentagon official said that design was put on
hold because the original $1.6 billion price tag had ballooned to at least
$2.6 billion.
“The Department of Defense is recognizing that on-site water neutralization
of the chemical weapons at Pueblo is the best path forward,” said Sen. Ken
Salazar, D-Colo.
John Salazar, whose district includes Pueblo, said he was concerned
not only about the loss of jobs the plant would create, but also the possibility
of transporting the weapons over mountain passes and other potentially dangerous
roads. He introduced legislation in the House several months ago that would
prohibit the Defense Department from studying weapons shipments.
The Pentagon had frozen about $813 million that Congress had approved
for building the destruction plants. Officials recently released about $70
million of that, enough to allow progress at both plants to continue slowly.
Allard and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, both members of the
Appropriations Committee, proposed an amendment to a spending package to
require the Defense Department to release and spend the money. Under the
legislation, the department would be prohibited from spending money earmarked
for the projects on any other program.
The full Senate is scheduled to vote on the spending package this
week, Allard said.