Local
Published: May 14, 2009
Chemical waste to be treated here
Added money to chemical destruction budget means hydrolysate will not be shipped elsewhere
By PETER STRESCINO
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Army representatives said Thursday that waste products from the destruction of chemical weapons will be biologically treated on-site at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.
Money added to the defense budget allows for the process, said Jean Reed, Army deputy assistant for chemical demilitarization in a phone interview Thursday. An additional $250 million was added to the 2010 budget, bringing the amount to $545.2 million.
"The money will be used to increase labor costs," he said. "Actual destruction operations in Pueblo will start in the fourth quarter of 2014 and conclude in the fourth quarter of 2017, with the work being done 24/7."
The 2017 date is one mandated by Congress for the completion of the project, missing the treaty date with Russia by five years. The United States had based that date on moving the waste, known as hydrolysate, off the depot. But such a move would be problematic if not impossible Reed said, because of individual states blocking the waste from traveling though their boundaries.
"There's no realistic option for 2012," Reed said. "The transportation's not the only reason. We are also precluded by law." He said the boost in funding and decision to bio-treat the waste in Pueblo accelerated the process by as many as three years, from a 2020 completion estimate.
But, he warned, any completion estimate is contingent on year-to-year funding by Congress.
"We're fully committed to a 2017 date," Reed said. "But don’t buy any lottery tickets on them."
The Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Ky., will begin its destruction
process in 2019 and be completed in 2021. Like Pueblo, Blue Grass has mustard
agents, but also houses nerve agents.
Pueblo has mostly 1.55 mm howitzer cannisters of mustard agent, about 780,000 projectiles in all, said Carmen Spencer, another Army chemical weapons specialist.
Ross Vincent, local chairman of the Sierra Club and member of the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission, was happy about the news.
"This is good news for Pueblo," he said Thursday. "Because some bureaucrat in Washington wanted to save a buck, they wanted to truck the waste to a plant near a poor neighborhood in Port Arthur, Texas.
"This will be good for Pueblo jobs (since another plant will be built and jobs to operate the plant will be needed) and addresses environmental justice issues."
Asked whether he was hopeful the long-delayed process is finally on track, Vincent said, "I am as hopeful as I've ever been. We have a congressman (Rep. John Salazar) on the (House) Appropriations Committee, a senator (Mark Udall) on the (Senate) Armed Services Committee and a committed congressional delegation."
pstress@chieftain.com