Tuesday night, the Richmond City Commission will consider an ordinance that would ban transport of nerve and blister agents within the city limits. Madison County magistrates also will take up the issue Tuesday; Berea already has a similar law on the books.

Such ordinances would seem to pose a problem if the Pentagon decides to send the 523 tons of decaying chemical weapons from Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond to an incineration site, such as the one in Anniston, Ala.

It's probably not possible to ship a trainload or truckload of the nerve agents VX or GB out of the depot without going through Richmond, which lies between the depot and Interstate 75. The ordinance, which presumably would be enforced by city police, would subject violators to fines up to $5,000.

The problem is, city commissions and fiscal courts don't have the authority to regulate interstate commerce. The federal government does that, and federal law already bars transportation of chemical weapons from state to state.

Nonetheless, Richmond City Manager David Evans sees the ordinance as more than a symbolic statement.

"If it passes the commission, it would be a strong indication of the feelings of the city, and hopefully that would not be ignored," he said.

Local officials were prompted to act after release of a Dec. 21 Defense Department memo directing the Army to consider alternatives to what has been planned for years: the construction of a plant at the depot to chemically neutralize the stockpile. The Pentagon has not said how or where the stockpile might be shipped.

Mike Brewer, a Richmond city commissioner, noted that Pentagon officials have said for years that the chemical weapons are too dangerous to transport. Now, he said, the only thing that seems to have changed is the budget.

Like many others in Madison and around the nation, Brewer is frustrated by the lack of information coming from the Pentagon.

"We want to know what's going on," he said. "We don't have the knowledge and they refuse to give it to us ... and tell us what they're doing.

"This is one way to at least get their attention."