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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WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is still considering moving mustard agent weapons out of state instead of destroying them at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, Pentagon officials said Wednesday at a congressional hearing.
Defense Department officials said they expect to make a decision soon on what to do at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, which is supposed to safely dispose of a mustard gas stockpile.
They might make it sooner than they think. While the Pentagon officials were testifying before the House committee, senators were drafting legislation that would order them to get the Pueblo project going again.
Officials said they are waiting on the results of a study before they decide whether to build the plant.
"We should be getting the information at the end of the month, and we'll make the decision as soon as we can," said Dale Klein, assistant to the secretary of defense, at a hearing before a House Armed Services subcommittee.
The answer didn't satisfy lawmakers, who say residents are frustrated by continued delays in building the plant.
"The folks in Pueblo have put up with these weapons for 50 years, and now they deserve those jobs" that the plant would bring, said Rep. John Salazar, whose district includes the chemical plant.
The Army halted work at the plant in January so it could study alternatives after the projected cost of the Pueblo operation climbed to $2.6 billion - $1 billion more than planned.
One of the Army's options is to make the Pueblo plant smaller, which Defense Department officials repeatedly called "right-sizing" at the hearing.
The law doesn't allow transportation of chemical weapons across state lines, but defense officials decided to study the idea of shipping the Pueblo stockpile to other locations anyway.
"Nobody wants those weapons moved," Salazar said, vowing to fight any attempts to change the law to allow chemical weapon shipments. "I can tell you, it won't go through Colorado. I can promise you that."
"The DOD's admission today is an insult to the work the community has done in the past 20 years, making it clear that legislation is needed to make sure we destroy the chemical weapons on time," Salazar said.
The Pueblo plant would use a new technology called water neutralization and biotreatment to make the weapons inert, rather than burning the chemicals. Incineration is not an option at the Pueblo plant, Klein said.
The House committee called the hearing to grill defense officials over cost overruns, delays and safety concerns in the nation's chemical weapons disposal program. A plant in Kentucky is facing similar problems as the Pueblo depot. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Kentucky, also said he would fight any plan to transport the chemicals out of state.
The Senate Armed Services Committee gets its turn to question the defense officials at a hearing Monday.