136th Year... and
still on the job!
Saturday February 26,
2005
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136th Year... and
still on the job!
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Saturday February 26,
2005
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DENVER - Colorado's congressional delegation and state officials have joined forces to pressure the Pentagon to live up to its promise to properly dispose of mustard gas weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.
U.S. Reps. John Salazar, Bob Beauprez and Mark Udall told the Legislature's Capital Development Committee on Friday that the state's entire delegation - both its senators and all seven representatives - plans to do everything in its power to get the U.S. Department of Defense to live up to a promise to build a water neutralization and biotreatment plant to dispose of 2,600 tons of mustard agent weapons.
The three congressmen, along with representatives for Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar and Reps. Diana DeGette and Tom Tancredo, met at the behest of committee chairwoman Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, in a bid to coordinate state and federal efforts on the depot, a proposed veterans hospital in Denver and transportation funding statewide.
Last month, Allard and Salazar introduced identical bills in Congress that would bar the Pentagon from studying other ways to dispose of the chemicals.
"They've studied it three times already," said Udall, who as a member of the House Armed Services Committee said he planned to raise the issue there.
Udall said there already is a federal law that bars such materials from being transported to other weapons-destruction sites in the nation.
Under an international treaty, the U.S. has until 2012 to destroy the weapons.
Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Owens also has gotten involved in the fight.
On Friday, the governor's office released to The Pueblo Chieftain a copy of a letter the governor sent to Army Secretary Francis Harvey on Wednesday calling on the Pentagon to move ahead with the project, even offering to help pay for it.
"I believe there must be a way to reconcile cost with the need to protect our communities, and to meet the weapons destruction treaty deadline of 2012," Owens wrote.
"Ideas such as adapting the facility design and operation should be pursued. The state of Colorado is prepared to work with the Department of the Army to address cost, if that is the concern, or any other issue that resulted in this most recent delay."
Owens called on Harvey to help expedite the matter, saying the longer it is delayed the more dangerous the situation becomes.
"Further delay of this project will have serious long-term consequences," Owens said. "Many citizens in and around Pueblo have raised concerns about the safety of continuing to store these deteriorating weapons in their current condition - a concern that I share." State lawmakers also hoped to send a clear message that they, too, want to see the project funded. The state House and Senate this month unanimously approved a resolution calling on Congress to reappropriate the $2.6 billion project.
Last month, the DOD halted about $30 million in contracts while it conducted a three-month study of alternative ways to destroy the weapons.
Pueblo-area businesses and residents were expecting the project to bring about 1,000 new jobs over the next 10 years.
The federal lawmakers also said that a proposal to build a new VA hospital on the grounds of the old Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital site in Aurora was far from dead.
Beauprez said negotiations between VA officials and the University of Colorado at Denver are progressing.
Beauprez and Salazar also said that they are hopeful the state will see more federal transportation dollars - as much as $3 billion over the next six years - to pay for needed road projects.
Beauprez also said that the federal government may soon need to look for new ways to pay for highways. He said that the growing number of alternative fuel vehicles are cutting into the gas tax that pays for highway projects nationwide.