136th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday January 26, 2005

Allard: No more studies needed

U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar said Tuesday that enough studies have been done regarding the moving of chemical weapons and they will co-sponsor legislation they plan to introduce today to block funding for any more.

Allard, the state's Republican senator, and Salazar, his Democrat freshman colleague, were assured by Defense Department officials last week that weapons would not be moved from the Pueblo Chemical Depot. But the next day, it was learned that another Army memo had ordered a halt on all construction work on disposal facility here for 90 days while the Army conducts a $150,000 study of the possibility of transporting weapons.

In addition, the Colorado senators were supposed to have received a memo by last Friday from Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne clarifying the government's plans for the Pueblo demilitarization program - but as of Tuesday evening they had not received any information or explanation why it was delayed.

There are 2,600 tons of artillery shells and mortar rounds containing mustard agent, stored in earth-covered igloos, at the Pueblo base. The United States has a treaty obligation to destroy those weapons by 2012.

The Army has been using incineration and water neutralization at bases around the country and was supposed to be overseeing construction of a water neutralization plant here.

Last year, the Defense Department budget request gutted funding for design work on the Pueblo facility, and even after Allard intervened to restore some of the money, the Pentagon issued an order stopping all design work.

Two weeks ago, another order came down, stopping all preliminary construction work on roads, support buildings and infrastructure.

In a statement Tuesday, Allard said, "It is extremely disturbing to me that the Pentagon would study the possibility of relocating Pueblo’s chemical weapon stockpile after the Pentagon assured Sen. Salazar and myself last week that such an option was unrealistic, not to mention illegal.

"Studying whether to relocate the stockpile is an incredible waste of time and scarce defense dollars. The money should be used to help pay for the rising cost of disposing of these weapons, not a meaningless intellectual exercise."

Allard said that at least three such studies already have been done.

Salazar added, "We believe we were given a good faith commitment last week that the destruction of the weapons would continue at Pueblo using the water neutralization technology agreed upon and that the munitions would not be transferred elsewhere.

"While we wait for the promised clarification on these matters, Senator Allard and I believe it is necessary to emphasize our resolve. This legislation helps provide that emphasis."

Local critics of the Army's action call it a stalling tactic to allow the Army to shift funds that might have come to Pueblo, in order to cover cost overruns at other installations where incineration has proved to be more costly than expected and taken longer than planned.

A local coalition was successful in blocking an incinerator here and winning approval of the water neutralization method instead which will use bacteria to break down the hazardous materials, as is done in many sewer treatment plants.

The same technique was supposed to be used at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, and has already been used to destroy 80 percent of the mustard agent stored at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Sierra Club official Ross Vincent, one of the leaders in the local coalition, defended the fight for water neutralization, pointing out that state health department permits have been approved at record speed while incineration permits have faced years of protest and court challenges in other states.

Had the Army persisted with plans for incineration, he said, "we would be tied up in court from now until the cows come home."