138th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday November 29, 2006

Chem demil concerns shared by other communities

By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Communities around the country share Pueblo's concerns over how chemical weapons will be destroyed and the economic impact of billions of dollars in spending, according to the head of the local community advisory committee.

John Klomp found that to be the case at a recent meeting of CAC members in Dallas. Klomp is chairman of the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Community Advisory Committee.

Klomp attended the Chemical Materials Agency's annual environmental forum along with fellow CAC members Irene Kornelly and Joan Sowinski. Sowinski represents the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on the commission.

CAC members from nearly all the sites where chemical weapons are stored attended the meeting. The only ones absent, Klomp said, were from Newport, Ind., which was disappointing because that site currently is facing problems disposing of its liquid waste.

Officials in New Jersey are blocking shipments of hydrolysate, the contaminated water left over from nerve agent neutralization.

Pueblo CAC members are skeptical of the Defense Department's plan to ship mustard agent hydrolysate off-site instead of using biotreatment here and recycling the water. "Blue Grass is just as concerned about hydrolysate shipments as we are," Klomp said, referring to the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, where a similar method planned for Pueblo will neutralize nerve and mustard agent.

Another common concern among sites that are already in operation is keeping workers. Work forces range from 700 to 1,100, he said, and because many stockpiles are located in rural areas or near small towns, it's been hard to find people and keep them once they''re trained.

The Defense Department's tight rules concerning who can work in the plants eliminates many people from the job pool, Klomp said, adding that he doubted that Bechtel, prime contractor for the Pueblo work, will be able to keep to its plan to hire 85 percent of the work force locally.

Another concern is what to do with plants and workers when the job is finished. While that time is a long way off for Pueblo - completion of weapons destruction has been pushed back to 2023 - Klomp said that communities are all looking at ways to use some of the infrastructure left behind and find jobs for the highly qualified people.

Chemical stockpiles and percentage destroyed:

Location	Tons at beginning	Percentage Destroyed
Johnston Atoll	2,031	100
Deseret, Utah	13,617	56
Aberdeen, Md.	16,023	100
Anniston, Ala.	2,253	23
Umatilla, Ore.	3,717	22
Pine Bluff, Ark.	3,849	10
Newport, Ind.	1,269	33
Blue Grass, Ky.	523	0
Pueblo	2,611	0

Williams said that his group would continue to put pressure on the Pentagon. "We will work harder than ever with each and every member of Congress to see that enough funds are available to expeditiously build and then fully operate these disposal facilities," he said. "We know we can count on the Kentucky and Colorado delegations, but we can't stop there. We need the support of the entire Congress to make sure our own WMDs don't turn out to be the next 9/11."

The strongest supporters of expediting the programs at the two locations have been Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., now Senate majority leader, and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who still has two more years in his current term, along with majority party members Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. John Salazar, both from Colorado.

Local groups joined Williams in decrying the Pentagon's plans.

Terry Hart, chairman of Better Pueblo, said, "The more we learn, the worse it gets. It's becoming increasingly clear that this new approach will violate both U.S. and international law, defy congressional directives, prolong and increase unnecessary risks to workers and the public, and produce yet another raid on the taxpayers' pocketbook."

Neal Hall, business manager of the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council, added, "This is wrong. It's just plain wrong. Pueblo's years of service to the nation in housing and protecting these weapons seem to count for nothing at the Pentagon these days. The continuing attempts to outsource these jobs are a travesty for all of Pueblo's working families."

Larry Howe-Kerr, with the Social Justice Office of the Diocese of Pueblo, said the Pentagon's credibility and integrity were being jeopardized after several years of cooperating with the community.

"It was a model of how communities and government should work together to do the right thing," he said. "All shared in the success. Now they appear to be trying to undo those remarkable achievements."