136th Year... and still on the job!	Tuesday June 7, 2005

Citizens group closes in on chem demil work plan 

Bechtel asked to revise project to fall within Pentagon cost guidelines

The Defense Options Working Group is expected to approve by next week - with some reservations - a set of options that would bring down the estimated cost over the lifetime of the project.

The Defense Department halted nearly all work at the Pueblo Chemical Depot last year, claiming that it would cost nearly $1 billion more than planned to build and operate the plant being designed.

Since then, the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative agency, which is charged with destroying 2,800 tons of mustard agent weapons here and another arsenal at the Blue Grass Army Depot, has asked prime contractor Bechtel to come up with a revised plan that would be within the Pentagon's $1.7 billion cost guidelines.

The Colorado Citizens Advisory Commission will offer its own report on Bechtel's revisions, and has assigned a subcommittee, the Defense Options Working Group, with developing that report.

The Defense Options Working Group met Monday to go over a draft of what it will recommend to the Citizens Advisory Commission later this month.

The major changes Bechtel is studying are:

Shipping uncontaminated pallets and other storage items to a hazardous-waste landfill.

Taking the munitions apart and shipping explosive components to another location for disposal.

Shipping out the agent hydrolysate, the water left over from the neutralization process.

The draft recommendations before the group would OK the first two options, with some restrictions, but the third one is not supported.

The working group's draft supports shipping out the pallets and other materials, called "dunnage," to landfills that may accept the Pueblo Chemical Depot's contaminated wood. But that recommendation comes with the provision that the contractor is sure it can detect dunnage contaminated with mustard agent, which would have to be destroyed on site.

The same kind of restriction is placed on shipping out explosives - the propellants, fuses and bursters in the artillery and mortar rounds stored at the depot. The group also is expected to ask for information on where the explosives are being sent. And the draft raises the question of permitting delays due to the new plan that calls for disassembling the weapons to remove the explosives and then storing the weapons again in igloos at the depot.

The draft goes on to state that there is "no compelling reason" to ship the hydrolysate out of Pueblo.

Not processing the liquid waste here will mean the loss of jobs - as many as 200 based on figures estimated last year - and presents a potential for accidents, it says.

It also will mean transporting tanker trucks full of contaminated water across state lines instead of recycling it in the processing plant, according to the statement.

The Citizens Advisory Commission is expected to adopt its recommendations at the end of the month, after a number of public presentations on the options.