| The Blue Grass Army Depot will receive
$175 million for disposal of its chemical weapons in 2007, if Congress passes
President Bush's budget proposal. The budget allocates almost $350 million for chemical weapon disposal in Kentucky and Colorado: an amount ten times the $33 million the Pentagon projected last year. Craig Williams, director of Chemical Weapons Working Group said in a press release that Sens. Mitch McConnell and Wayne Allard took Kentucky and Colorado citizens' call for more funding to Washington. "I am pleased to see the Department of Defense took my advice and included sufficient funding for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives in the budget," McConnell said in the release. The ACWA is the Army program overseeing chemical weapon disposal in Colorado and Kentucky. Williams said the proposal shows a complete turnaround in the Pentagon's and the President's priorities. "They increased the budget request by 10 times," he said. "That shows they've changed their mentality on the importance of the project." The funds would be divided between research and development and construction. The 2007 budget proposal comes after news last week that the Pentagon plans to fund the Depot's disposal efforts in 2006. The depot plans to build a disposal plant, which is scheduled to be completed by 2012. Reach Kelly at kelly_mckinney10@eku.edu |