136th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday April 20, 2005

By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne also called off a study of alternatives that might have led to an attempt to change federal law and allow the 2,600 tons of explosive shells containing mustard agent to be shipped to an incinerator in another state.

The U.S. Senate is close to voting on a supplemental appropriations bill that contains an amendment ordering the Army to spend the money allocated in this year's budget.

The bill also will ask for a complete report on the Army's ability to destroy the nation's chemical stockpile by a 2012 treaty deadline and justification for why it should continue to be in charge of the programs in Pueblo and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.

Wynne's order frees up $144 million in funds held over from fiscal 2004 and money still frozen in the 2005 budget.

A month ago, Wynne's office released enough money to do about $30 million in site preparation work, including fencing, roads and a new gate for the Pueblo Chemical Depot. All of that would have still been needed if the weapons were shipped out, a possible plan that drew opposition from congressional delegations and leaders in many states that might have been affected.

Tuesday's move eliminates, for now, the possibility that the Army might consider that alternative.

"They finally got the message," said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who along with his Kentucky colleague, Republican Mitch McConnell, authored the amendment to the appropriations bill. "They finally read the language we put in (the amendment)." Allard also said he saw no reason to withdraw the amendment.

In addition, Allard and Colorado freshman Democrat Ken Salazar grilled Wynne during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing last week, pressing him for answers about why the Pueblo and Blue Grass projects were being blocked while incineration plants were running over their budgets.

Wynne's memo took a conciliatory tone, saying he understood that the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative program running the Pueblo and Blue Grass projects has made progress in coming up with lower-cost plans for the plants and asked for a report in 30 days on how the projects would progress.

Prime contractor Bechtel already has started developing plans to keep the project within a $1.7 billion life cycle budget, $1 billion less than what the project would have cost had it been accelerated under an order from Wynne's predecessor.

John Klomp, chairman of the Colorado Chemical Weapons Citizens Advisory Commission, said, "I love it."

Klomp said the release of funding means that the local group and Bechtel can move ahead with the design of the plant. Even though it will be smaller than what was expected a year ago, he said, "That's what we originally anticipated. The community is perfectly fine with it."

Gary Anderson, local manager for the ACWA program, said that the next step will be to prepare a report for Wynne's office and "tell them what we need for ’07 so we can get it into the budget."

Ross Vincent, the local Sierra Club chapter president who heads a committee working with Bechtel on a revised design, was heartened by the news.

Trimming the project to the $1.7 billion could mean shipping the partially treated material and explosives to another site and having fewer operating lines for the destruction plant.

Vincent said Wynne's memo could indicate "a much more favorable consideration of options that will exceed that ($1.7 billion) number. We can breathe a little easier in looking over these options."

With the delays in the design and construction, there is enough money left over from fiscal 2004, this year and what's been requested for 2006 to get back on a new schedule.

In recent months, Pentagon budget plans showed nothing but a caretaker status after fiscal 2007 for five years.

Sen. Salazar agreed that the memo was good news. "The Department of Defense is recognizing that on-site water neutralization of the chemical weapons at Pueblo is the best path forward. And I am pleased that the Pentagon is recognizing the urgent need to destroy all of these weapons before the Chemical Weapons Convention deadline of 2012.”

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., credited a bipartisan effort by the Colorado delegation and other members of Congress with getting the Defense Department to free the money.

"The most important thing is that they have ruled that transportation is not an alternative and the jobs are still in Pueblo," he said, adding that he remained concerned that "they spent a lot of extra tax dollars just raising havoc and raising concerns around the district."