Inside the Pentagon

Army requests $4.9 million for Pueblo

CHEM DEMIL PLANT FUNDING CUT WILL FACE CONGRESSIONAL RESISTANCE

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Date: February 26, 2004

An Army plan to drastically lower fiscal year 2005 funding for a
water-neutralization chemical weapon stockpile destruction plant in
Pueblo, CO, will meet resistance in Congress, according to congressional
and defense sources.

The Defense Department is backing the Army's decision to request only
$4.9 million in FY-05 funding for the Pueblo facility despite the
opposition of Colorado citizens, sister publication Defense Environment
Alert reported Feb. 10. The service had projected an FY-05 request of
more than $150 million.

The Colorado congressional delegation is "really upset on this, and
they're going to be working very hard" to reverse the cut, a Capitol
Hill source told Inside the Pentagon Feb. 23. "If I lived in Colorado, I
would feel the [Defense] Department had turned [its] back on them," he
added.

The Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant stores 2,600 tons of
mustard agent -- 8.5 percent of the U.S. chemical weapon stockpile --
and is one of two pilot biological neutralization plants managed by
DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program. The Army is the
executive agent for the overall chemical demilitarization program, which
is designed to destroy all remaining U.S. stocks by 2007 in order to
abide by the international Chemical Weapons Convention. The CWC allows a
one-time five-year extension for compliance until 2012, which the United
States is likely to request.

This year's chemical demilitarization budget request -- $1.37 billion --
is about $85 million less than projected by DOD a year ago for FY-05.
However, requested funding for disposition plants that burn chemical
agents has increased.

Pueblo funds have been "realigned to the Operation and Maintenance and
Procurement sections of the Chem Demil program to support critical
emergent requirements," DOD told Congress in a budget justification
document submitted to Capitol Hill this month.

If allowed to stand, the Pueblo funding request would delay the
completion of the facility by 18 months, the congressional source
estimated. Construction is set to begin later this year and would be
unaffected by the FY-05 cuts, according to ACWA documents.

The Army says it is reviewing the Pueblo plant and "evaluating design
adjustments due to initial design concerns," according to the budget
justification.

An Army budget official told Defense Environment Alert earlier this
month that DOD is considering downsizing the facility. Funds from FY-04
will carry Pueblo into FY-05, the official said, adding the budget
reduction likely will not cause much of a slowdown at Pueblo.

But lower spending at Pueblo will postpone the start of operations at
the other ACWA pilot bio-neutralization plant, in Blue Grass, KY,
according to the congressional source. The Kentucky site, which is fully
funded in the FY-05 budget request at $105.8 million, and which will
also use a water neutralization process, "feeds into some of the design
components" of the Pueblo plant, the source explained. Construction
there is slated to begin in 2007 and disposition is supposed to start in
2011.

The possible delay in Kentucky is difficult to calculate, the source
said, but Craig Williams, director of the Kentucky-based Chemical
Weapons Working Group, estimated Feb. 24 that the Pueblo funding
reduction could add nine months to a year to the schedule for the
completion of Blue Grass -- assuming no cuts are made in future budgets.
The working group is a watchdog organization that advocates
non-incineration destruction methods.

The Kentucky congressional delegation, Williams added, worries the
proposed budget cut in Pueblo "may be indicative of a trend of looking
at both ACWA sites as billpayers for the inadequacies of the management
and fiscal oversight" at the six other stockpile disposition sites.

A September 2003 DOD inspector general audit found the chem demil
program plagued by rising costs attributed to problems in attaining
local environmental permits and prolonged decision-making on what type
of technology to utilize in the two ACWA sites. In addition, it cited
"cost escalation and safety incidents at operational chemical disposal
facilities."

In 2002, a worker at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah was exposed to
nerve gas during routine maintenance, leading to the suspension of
operations there from July 2002 until March 2003. An investigation
faulted inadequate or poorly followed safety procedures; the site has
been temporarily shut down several times since reopening.

In addition, the Army is being sued by construction workers at the
Umatilla disposal plant, near Hermiston, OR, over alleged exposure to
nerve gas. Umatilla subcontractor Raytheon settled late last year with
the workers -- who complained of shortness of breath, nausea and
coughing one day during construction -- for an undisclosed amount,
without admitting wrongdoing.

Overall, estimated chemical demilitarization program costs have
increased from $15 billion when stockpile disposal began in 1985 to $24
billion. The General Accounting Office estimates delays and "several
long-standing management and organizational issues" have added an
additional $1.4 billion to the program. GAO also states that DOD will
fail to meet the CWC deadline, even when extended to 2012, according to
an Oct. 30 report.

"GAO believes that costs will grow higher and further delays will
occur" it adds.

-- David Perera