By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The Defense Department made it clear Thursday why it gutted funding for the weapons destruction in Pueblo next year.

It has decided the existing plan for the weapons destruction project at Pueblo Chemical Depot is too expensive and has ordered a revision that will delay work at least six months.

That was the message the Pentagon delivered to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who has asked for a Senate hearing on why funding for Pueblo has been cut.

"What the department is proposing to do makes very little sense to me," Allard said. "It is shortsighted and unwise."

The delay, Allard said, will make it unlikely that the weapons can be destroyed in time to meet the 2012 deadline in the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty.

The U.S. government was expected to spend $151.7 million next year on the Pueblo project, but in February, the Defense Department's recommended budget for fiscal 2005 called for only $4.9 million. The only reason given was that the project was deemed too costly.

"For the life of me, I can't figure out why the Department of Defense would want to revise the design for this facility," Allard said. "It will end up adding millions to the project's final cost. It looks penny-wise, but pound-foolish."

Allard also pointed out that it was the Army that wanted to accelerate the program for national security reasons and should have known that would be more expensive. "It is my understanding that the contractor, in close cooperation with Defense Department program managers, put together a design that reduced risk, added certainty to the timetable and ensured worker safety. The department appears to be throwing all this away in order to save a few dollars over the short term," Allard said.

"In addition, this decision is entirely inconsistent with the orders the designers were previously given, which called for an acceleration of the project. How can the project ever be completed if the department keeps changing its mind about what it wants?"

The Army must destroy 2,500 tons of mustard agent in explosive rounds that are stored in earthen igloos at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

Bechtel is the lead contractor in a program that will use an environmentally friendly, water-based method to break down the explosives and mustard agent.

Allard said Thursday his next step would be to ask for a meeting with Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne, the senior Defense Department official in charge of the program.