138th Year... and still on the job!	Monday April 14, 2008

Chem demil projects get under way

Construction started four years ago; two major building projects are in construction

By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

It's literally taken several acts of Congress to finally get construction under way on a facility that will bring to an end Pueblo's role of guarding an aging stockpile of chemical weapons.

The federal government has been talking about getting rid of the weapons for more than three decades, but the project has faced repeated delays, funding cuts and other setbacks. Now, buildings are going up that will house the complex machinery that will take apart weapons, flush out the mustard agent and neutralize it.

Prime contractor Bechtel started construction work here more than four years ago, putting in utilities and an office building that it staffed and then downsized when the Defense Department froze funding. The company's design for an accelerated program, demanded in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was ruled too costly by the Pentagon and planners were told to come up with a cheaper, albeit more time-consuming, plan.

That done, and Congressional pressure applied, money began flowing again and the effect is now apparent with the new buildings going up.

Two big construction projects now under way are the Enhanced Reconfiguration Building and the Agent Processing Buildings.

The reconfiguration building will be where the 780,000 mortar rounds and artillery shells will be opened up and their explosives removed. The propellants and blasters will be shipped off to another site for disposal and the weapons containing mustard agent will be moved to the processing building where the sticky compound will be mixed with hot water and neutralized. What's left still will be a hazardous material, similar to diluted drain cleaner, but no longer mustard agent.

No decision has been made regarding the next step although Bechtel has designed an on-site processing facility, similar to a municipal sewer plant, where bacteria can break down the compounds into salts and the water can be recycled back to the processing building.

The infrastructure is being put in place for the processing plant but a decision on whether the work will be done here or off-site won't be made until summer. That has been an issue between the Defense Department, where officials think it's cheaper to ship the hydrolysate somewhere else, and members of the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Committee. CAC members contend that while the hydrolysate may indeed be safe to transport, one accident or prolonged litigation by communities it could pass through could force the work here to grind to a halt, adding a lot more expense than the cost of the treatment plant.

They also point out that the Pentagon's cost estimates don't take into consideration the payback over the lifetime of the treatment equipment, which could continue to function after the weapons are gone or be given to a small town in need of a sewer plant.

At the last CAC meeting in March, Bechtel Project Manager Paul Henry reported that his company now had 147 people working on the project, 135 of them in Pueblo. Of that number, 35 were local hires.

Bechtel by then also had hired 96 construction workers, all receiving union scale wages.

Those numbers likely will be higher when Henry reports new figures at the end of April and the company this week had 20 job openings posted for engineers, construction managers and other skilled positions.

There was some concern that it might be difficult to fill the many skilled positions but Henry said recently that people are coming forward. The company has run job fairs in Colorado Springs and Pueblo and also is targeting Fort Carson, realizing that soon-to-be veterans have the experience and security clearances for much of the work that will be done here.

In addition to Bechtel itself, other partners including the Washington Demilitarization Co., Battelle Memorial Institute and Parsons, also are hiring. Construction workers are being provided through the Colorado Building & Construction Trades Council, whose member unions have been recruiting people for several years into an apprenticeship program in anticipation of the demand at the depot.

The Army also is hiring additional security guards as it continues its role safeguarding the stockpile.

In addition to direct hires, Bechtel continues to award contracts for work it doesn't do itself.

So far, Henry said, the company has awarded contracts worth $106.5 million, with $36.2 million to Pueblo County businesses and $32.3 million to other Colorado firms.

This year, contracts will be awarded for heating, ventilation and air conditioning services, fire extinguisher service, fire suppression, welding equipment, piping supplies and testing services.

The processing building should be completed by 2011 but it will take four more years of preparation before the first weapons are processed. The defense department still projects that the work will take until 2021 with another three years after that to decommission the plant. Congress wants it done more quickly and Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., along with Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have introduced legislation setting a 2017 deadline for weapons destruction in Pueblo and at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Ky., another program under the same Pentagon agency as Pueblo’s.

The Defense Department is putting together a cost estimate for speeding up the work and is expected to have that ready later this year. Congress has shown a willingness to open its wallet in the past, tacking on more money than the Pentagon requested this year in order to make sure progress was made.