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The Pueblo Chieftain & Star Journal
136th Year... and still on the job!
Thursday February 17, 2005


Resolution aims at restoring funding for Chem Depot

By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU

DENVER - Sens. Ken Kester and Abel Tapia on Wednesday called on the Colorado Senate to demand that the Pentagon live up to its promise to fund the Pueblo Chemical Depot Project.

While it doesn't carry the force of law, the two Southeastern Colorado lawmakers got the Senate to unanimously approve a resolution asking Congress to reappropriate the $2.1 billion the U.S. Department of Defense had approved in 2000 to build a plant needed to neutralize chemical weapons at the depot.

Last month, the Defense Department ordered the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, instead, to look into transporting the 2,600 tons of mustard agent shells or find "other alternatives" to destroy them before the 2012 deadline called for in a treaty with other nations.

That occurred after Defense Department officials had assured the state's U.S. Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard that the department had no plans to move the chemicals elsewhere or destroy them by incineration rather than water neutralization.

That conflicting message spurred Kester and Tapia - along with state Reps. Buffie McFadyen, Dorothy Butcher and Rafael Gallegos, who will sponsor the resolution in the House - to draft the resolution.

"The people of Southern Colorado have remained patient while danger loomed in their back yard because of the promise of jobs and economic development," said Kester, a Republican from Las Animas whose district includes the depot. "It is incumbent on the Department of Defense to move this project from vision to reality. Promises have been made, and those promises must be kept. For the federal government to back out of this project now is a disservice to the people of Colorado."

Tapia, a Pueblo Democrat, added that residents and businesses in the region have been preparing for the construction of the plant, and have incurred significant out-of-pocket expenses as a result.

He said that if the Pentagon ultimately decides not to build the plant, it should compensate the region for those expenses.

The project was expected to generate more than 1,000 new jobs over a 10-year period.
"The county and the local business community have been expending a major amount of money preparing for this huge project," Tapia said. "We have been on-again and off-again for years and that's unfair to our community. Preparing preliminary designs and bids do not get compensated (by the government) and I believe that the Army owes us compensation."