136th Year... and still on the job!	Saturday June 18, 2005

4 senators want cost caps lifted from chem demil work

U.S. senators from Colorado and Kentucky are asking the new undersecretary of defense in charge of the destruction of chemical weapons to lift what they say are unreasonable spending caps on programs in both states.

The letter, signed by Wayne Allard, R-Colo., Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Kentucky Republicans Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, was sent to Kenneth J. Krieg, who was confirmed by the Senate this month as the new undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

The Defense Department has put project cost caps of $1.7 billion and $2 billion on weapons-destruction programs at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot, respectively. The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives agency is working to redesign the operations to meet those restrictions.

The cost caps were set by Krieg's department before he took over, based on what Pentagon officials said were comparable costs of incinerators.

When Congress sided with local groups opposed to incineration and authorized the use of water neutralization at Pueblo and Blue Grass, the law stated that the alternative method would have to carry costs comparable to incineration but also offer the same safety and duration.

The senators maintain that the law never called for an exact price tag. They say the order to keep costs at $1.7 billion and $2 billion has "hamstrung" the programs and jeopardizes the safety and duration provisions.

And they don't mince words about how the matter has been handled, charging "the administration of this program at the Office of the Secretary of Defense-level has been fraught with neglect and mismanagement from the beginning."

In a statement, Allard said, “DOD is latching onto an unnecessary cost estimate that was prepared before any design work had started on the Pueblo project. This put the cart way ahead of the horse.

“The enormous cost of this scheduled delay, and the cost of redesigning the demilitarization facility, were not included as part of the original cost estimate,” Allard said. “Of course, any calculation of cost made before the delay is going to be inaccurate."

In order to comply with the cost cap, prime contractor Bechtel has been developing alternatives that have not been met with much enthusiasm by the local commission overseeing the project.

Allard pointed out that the Design Options Working Group, made up of Pueblo community leaders, has indicated that significant safety issues might arise if the department insists on sticking to the lower cost estimate.

“Cost considerations notwithstanding, projects of this kind have to be done right,” Sen. Allard said. “The safety and security of the people of Pueblo have to be paramount.

“I applaud the work of the Design Options Working Group in their efforts to reduce costs. They have taken on a difficult task, and the Department of Defense’s flawed cost estimate is making their job that much harder,” Sen. Allard said.