136th Year... and still on the job!	Tuesday May 24, 2005

Group seeks more demil funds

A local group is continuing its work to come up with a recommendation on how to proceed with the destruction of chemical weapons here, but its leader hopes Congress will loosen the purse strings and allow a more reasonable plan to move forward.

Ross Vincent, chairman of the Design Options Working Group, said at Monday's weekly meeting he hoped to see some action from Capitol Hill soon to ease the Defense Department's current constraints limiting the overall cost of the project to $1.6 billion.

To stay within that limit, prime contractor Bechtel is presenting options that include a scaled-down version of its original plan, developed when the Pentagon wanted the project accelerated. But that will mean doing some work off-site, like disposing of explosives and the secondary treatment of the 2,600 tons of mustard agent after it's neutralized.

Members of the working group, part of the Colorado Advisory Commission overseeing the weapons-destruction process, have pointed out that costs involved in shipping those substances, as well as political obstacles, need to be considered before the Defense Department approves the revised plan.

Group member Irene Kornelly pointed out that the largest facility for disposal of the treated water, called hydrolysate, is in New Jersey and that state is fighting the Army's plans to transfer VX nerve gas hydrolysate there from its Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.

Local group members generally agree that the costs of trade-offs like shipping out some elements need to be studied.

Originally, Bechtel planned to do all of the processes in Pueblo. Pentagon analysts put a $2.6 billion price tag on that and pulled the plug last year, ordering the company to redo its plans within the $1.7 billion officials said was the comparable cost of an incinerator.

Congressional pressure has succeeded in freeing up funds for some work but the program is still operating under the same dollar constraint, which Vincent said can't cover the costs even if the project is scaled down.

He said that he anticipated more direction from Congress that would provide "something less draconian" in future budget allocations.