Pueblo Chieftain
July 10, 2003
Editorial

Keep the work here

A subcommittee of the Citizens Advisory Commission on the demilitarization of mustard munitions at Pueblo Chemical Depot is weighing recommendations about what should be done with materials left over when the chemical agent itself has been neutralized. Generally, the group wants as much of the work to stay here as possible

One option was to ship partially decontaminated metals off-site to the cleaned further, at an additional program cost of $10 million. Another was to ship explosives (the bursters and fusers on the munitions) to another site.

The subcommittee reached a general agreement that disposal of wooden pallets, known as dunnage, be further explored with an eye to recycling those where it's suitable. And they generally agreed that propellant might be trucked to another location for disposal. Bechtel, the main contractor for the demilitarization, and the Army are concerned that the explosives could gum up the process when exposed to the water used in neutralization of the mustard agent.

A third option--whether neutralized agent should be shipped in tankers to a New Jersey disposal site--was voted down by a majority oft he subcommittee Wednesday, although a unaimous consensus could not be reached.

The final decision on all these matters will be left to the Army. Last year, there was general agreement to recommend that all of the work demilitarizing the thousands of mustard agent munitions be done at the depot.

County Commissioner John Klomp, who chairs the overall commission, says economic considerations are important. He was told a couple of years ago that to only partially treat the mustard agent could cost Pueblo 50 to 60 jobs and $150 million that would not be pumped into the local economyu.

He also has questioned the safety of transporting the elements to a secondary treatment center. Certainly there would be a lot of NIMBY--not in my back yard--coming from communities along the route, whether founded or not.

For years, we had hoped the way could be found to ship the munitions to Tooele Chemical Depot in Utah where mustard and nerve agents are being demilitarized. That would have been far cheaper than building a destruction plant here.

But now that we are going to have an alternative technology destroy the weapons at the Pueblo depot, it is only proper that the entire job be done on site. The Army's decision should not be rocket science.