138th Year... and still on the job!	Thursday April 20, 2006

U.S. SEN. Wayne Allard of Colorado wants the Army to commit substantial funds by this summer to the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles at Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.

Sen. Allard and his Kentucky counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell, have sent a letter to Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Kenneth Krieg to get on with the mission of obsolete-weapons disposal, as mandated by international treaty.

“We want to make sure that DoD toes the line on these chemical weapons demilitarization projects,” the two senators wrote. “And we also are expecting the department to provide us with a detailed schedule for the work and completion of the Pueblo project, the Blue Grass project in Kentucky and all the other demilitarization sites in general.”

They received an indirect response from Dale Klein, assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear and chemical and biological defense programs. “Undersecretary Krieg is committed to fully funding both Pueblo and Blue Grass,” Mr. Klein said.

The safe disposal of Pueblo’s stockpile of mustard agent must include destroying the entire lot - chemicals, hydrosylate byproduct and packing materials - here rather than shipping some of it elsewhere.

We commend Colorado’s Sen. Allard for moving to hold the Army’s feet to the fire on the long-awaited project.