Local News
Posted: Tuesday, July 6, 2010
House of destruction: Plant to destroy chemical weapons continues to evolve
By JOHN NORTON
In 2004, when Pentagon officials did an about-face on their plans to destroy Pueblo’s mustard agent stockpile quickly, many people wondered if the project ever would get under way.
That’s why any action of late regarding the chemical weapons being stored at Pueblo Chemical Depot is a pleasant surprise to anyone who sees it.
“The pace of activity has really taken off here in the last six months,” said Jerry Tiller, local manager for URS, the company brought in by Bechtel to handle the actual destruction of the weapons.
URS also will handle the decommissioning of the plant, which will mean demolition of most of the buildings. The utilities likely will remain, however, so the grounds possibly could be put to some industrial use later.
“Bechtel pulled together a dream team,” Tiller said during a recent tour of the facility.
He explained that URS, Parsons and the Batelle Memorial Institute all have experience in weapons destruction and are getting prepared to implement some of the new aspects to the process that will be used in Pueblo.
Parsons is in charge of making the equipment. Batelle will do laboratory testing and handle environmental permits.
Officially, the facility here goes by the name Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant. It’s called a pilot plant because while other plants around the country have destroyed actual weapons — through incineration — or broken down mustard agent and other chemicals through water processes, Pueblo will be the first to do both. The Pueblo plant also will be using first-of-a-kind robotic systems to remove explosives and then process the mustard agent.
The project is well on its way to becoming one of Pueblo’s biggest in terms of economic activity and all of the contractors involved say they’ve done their best to spread the wealth in the community.
To date, Bechtel and its partners have spent more than $386 million — $133.4 million in Colorado and of that $77.5million in Pueblo to local suppliers and subcontractors.
The Pueblo plant employs 354 construction workers, many of them from the region. There also are 368 non-manual, long-term employees, 117 of them from Pueblo.
And the numbers are going to increase.
Most of the construction work is close to being done and the focus now is on installing equipment and developing the systems and procedures the workers will use when actual destruction gets under way in 2012.
Tiller said the program is expected to hire 25-30 people a month for the next 1 1/2 years. At its peak, PCP will employ 700 people in operations and maintenance and another 200 in support services. He expects the total work force to be about 1,000 counting other subcontractors.
Since the schedule doesn’t forecast the completion of the weapons destruction until the end of 2017 and the decommissioning of the plant taking up to another two years, it’s conceivable that there are students in high school today who could find themselves working at the plant.
Staffing all of the jobs long has been a concern, even finding qualified construction workers. But Paul Henry, project manager for Bechtel, has voiced his satisfaction with the hiring, so far.
Standards are high for all of the jobs and Bechtel and other firms involved have been targeting military veterans, especially those with experience in ordnance and electronics.Because it’s a federal job, veterans also will receive preference in hiring.
Drug use and criminal records are a major barrier to getting work at the project. Experience in robotics, military ordnance, automated processes, electronics, instrument control all are a plus.
Salaries typically will be 15 percent higher than industry averages, Tiller said.
Contractors are looking for instrumentation and controls, electrical and mechanical technicians, lab analysts and monitors, technical support specialists with programming skills, administration and clerical staffers, inventory control specialists, business office professionals, line supervisors and other technical professionals.
Tiller said that URS and others are looking to fill jobs now even though work hasn’t begun. A number of Puebloans were hired several years ago and sent to other chemical demilitarization projects around the country where they’ve gathered experience they’ll be able to use once the process gets started here.
Training for safety also is a big part of the program. As of May 31, the project went 586 work days without an injury.A worker injured ankle while exiting a building.
It’s also not just the individuals hired who will benefit from the project. Bechtel team members have been buying supplies and subcontracting work to a number of firms in the area since work got started.
Tiller said contracts will be awardedsoon for a new fence surrounding the restricted portion of the facility where mustard agent weapons will be handled, as well as a roof liner for the Enhanced Reconfiguration Building where explosives are removed and for asphalt.
Anyone looking for work or wanting to become a subcontractor or supplier should to the Bechtel Pueblo website.