RICHMOND - A congressional committee has proposed a $40 million cut in construction funds next year for chemical weapons disposal plants at Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County and in Pueblo, Colo.
The Pentagon had proposed $131 million for the two sites in fiscal 2007. If the cut makes it through the budget process, destruction of their chemical weapons stockpiles could be delayed for another year, backers of the project say.
The Army hopes to begin building the $2 billion Madison plant this year.
The final House vote on the bill could come within a month. The Senate has yet to produce a version of the 2007 defense bill.
An international treaty requires the destruction of all chemical weapons by April 2012 -- and even that date would require approval of a five-year extension -- but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Army acknowledged recently that it isn't going to be met.
The current projection is that weapons destruction will be completed at the depot by 2015 if the project is fully funded. At the four sites that use incinerators, the weapons won't be destroyed until 2016 or 2017.
Although $40 million is a relatively small portion of a program whose estimated cost now tops $32 billion, such a cut would have a substantial impact on the neutralization plant planned for the depot, said Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.
That is because projects cannot be started until full funding is in place, and some parts of the construction process can't proceed until others are completed, said Williams, who contended that cuts made now will drive up the overall costs as schedules are extended.
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, called the cuts "extremely disappointing" in the wake of news about missing the deadline "As this appropriations bill moves through Congress, it is imperative that the funding be returned to its previous level," he said in a statement.
A statment from Rebulican Sen. Mitch McConnell called the cuts to the program "a slap in the face to the people of Madison County. "
"The goal remains the same," he said, "to dispose of the weapons as safely and efficiently as possible."