136th Year... and still on the job!	Sunday November 7, 2004

COURTESY PHOTO/BECHTEL Liaison officer Kevin Blose (left) goes over drawings with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resident engineer Tom Minyard (center) and general engineer Philip Mayer. Work is continuing on site preparation even though the actual size of the weapons destruction facility won't be known for some time.

Stop-work order hasn't stopped all work at Pueblo Chemical Depot

By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The destruction of 2,600 tons of mustard agent at the Pueblo Chemical Depot may get started as much as a year behind schedule because of a dispute between Army officials and the project managers, but that hasn't kept work from continuing on the first phases of the project.

The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative program is in charge of the destruction of chemical weapons here and at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. At both sites, environmentally friendly methods will be used to destroy weapons rather than incineration, which was the Army's first choice.

ACWA's site project manager, Gary Anderson, has been meeting with local agencies to reassure them even though the Army has issued a stop-work order on Bechtel's program to design the actual destruction facility.

The stop-work order came as the result of a dispute over the project's cost, which developed earlier this year when Pentagon budget analysts complained that the Pueblo project's costs were spiraling far beyond the projected budget.

The fiscal 2005 budget gutted the funding for the Pueblo operation, and that triggered a backlash from Colorado's congressional delegation who, like many local officials, wanted the project to get started as soon as possible.

The Army's reaction confused many people involved in the project, because in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the weapons destruction programs were told to accelerate their plans so that aging chemical weapon stockpiles would not be a target for terrorists.

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/FILE Workers were photographed earlier this year installing a ground grid to channel away static electricity from a new substation.

Bechtel, the lead contractor for both the Pueblo and Blue Grass programs, started working on a larger facility that would destroy the weapons more quickly, basically going from two processing lines to three.

This summer, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., managed to restore $50 million of the $147 million cut from the Pueblo project's budget, but the Army's response was the stop-work order that effectively shut down Bechtel's design process.

Now, Bechtel has to come up with a cheaper alternative, and that's not expected to happen until next fall.

However, Anderson said other work in the first phase of the project is progressing and is not stopped. Phase I includes as much as $60 million in construction work and includes an office complex and power substation which already has been built at the site. Ongoing work includes clearing the land for the plant, grading, stormwater systems, installation of electrical and natural gas lines, lighting and fencing, water and sewer lines, construction of temporary construction facilities and a warehouse and extension of a road to a new access point in the northwest section of the depot grounds.

Most of that work should get under way early in 2005 and is not affected by the stop-work order. Later in the year, Phase II construction of a laboratory, control room and other facilities will begin, Anderson said.