136th Year... and
still on the job!
Thursday April 7,
2005
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136th Year... and
still on the job!
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Thursday April 7,
2005
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Tired of delays in the Pentagon's program to destroy chemical weapons here and in Kentucky, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday tacked language onto an appropriations bill telling the Defense Department to spend the $100 million allocated in this year's budget and to cease all studies of shipping the weapons to other sites.
The order was included in the 2005 fiscal year supplemental appropriations act that likely will be voted on next week by the full Senate.
The additional language was pushed by Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who represent two states where work has been delayed on weapons-destruction plants.
Complaining that cost estimates for the water neutralization plants at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot were too high, the Defense Department last fall ordered that the plants be redesigned.
Then all work was halted earlier this year when the Pentagon ordered a study of alternatives to on-site destruction, including shipping the weapons to other bases where incinerators were being used.
Just the possibility of shipping the weapons, something that would take a change in federal law or an executive order from the White House, has created a political firestorm across Western states.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, released a March 10 letter Tuesday he received from acting Defense Undersecretary Michael Wynne, saying the Army planned to study ways of getting rid of the mustard agent that could include shipping it to Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot.
‘‘I guess we’ll just have to continue to ask what part of ‘no’ the Army Chemical Materials Agency doesn’t understand,’’ Matheson said Tuesday in a statement.
He called on the Army to drop the study and keep the munitions at Pueblo Chemical Depot.
‘‘The reply (from Wynne) basically says that it is aware of the law, but plans to study the alternative of transporting the weapons stockpiles anyway. Such an arbitrary and dismissive stance seems incredible to me,’’ Matheson said.
Wynne said the Army was finding a chemical process that neutralizes the mustard gas ‘‘technically challenging’’ and expensive, forcing the Army to consider other ways of getting rid of the mustard gas by 2012 under a deadline of the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty.
The entire mustard agent stockpile at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds has already successfully been destroyed by that same method. Critics of the Defense Department charge that the real cost overruns have been at incinerators and the Pentagon wants to use money earmarked for Pueblo and Blue Grass to cover those costs.
After political pressure, the Pueblo and Blue Grass programs were authorized to start work again late last month even though the alternatives study has yet to be completed.
Prime contractor Bechtel is expected to call for bids in the next few weeks for about $30 million in road work, fence installation and other site preparation projects.
Allard said that the language added to the supplemental bill also protects the $372.38 million already appropriated but not spent and also tells the Army to stop studying alternatives.
"We have waited on the Department of Defense long enough," Allard said. "I thought it was time for us to take matters in our own hands and write into law what the Congress believes should be done to address the necessity of cleaning up these chemical weapons facilities, rather than tolerate any more foot-dragging by the DOD."
"It is too bad the DOD has to be pushed by Congress to do the right thing," he added.
The veteran lawmaker said he has never seen the Senate have to take direct action like this before, but "I've never run into this degree of obstinacy."
"This makes it crystal clear: The department must use the funds previously appropriated to move forward with the design and construction at both sites. DOD needs to give up its endless, pointless studies of alternative demilitarization technologies, complete the design process for both sites and get on with the business of cleaning up those facilities."
- The Associated Press contributed to this report