138th Year... and still on the job!	Sunday December 10 , 2006

Sooner, not later

EDITORIAL
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

ONCE ACTUAL demilitarization of mustard munitions now stored at Pueblo Chemical Depot gets under way, what's to be done with the waste compound that will result?

Local officials have pressed to have that waste, called hydrolysate, treated on site at the depot. However, Defense Department officials have expressed a desire to have the waste shipped to another site for treatment, possibly in New Jersey.

Last week Colorado's Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission heard a report from Commission Chairman John Klomp and member Irene Kornelly detailing what the Defense Department says it will save by off-site treatment from the breakdown of mustard agent.

Officials of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative program, which oversees the destruction of weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot, contend the program can save $150 million for the Pueblo operation alone by shipping the waste to another plant instead of building a biotreatment facility here, but they admit that amount is very tenuous. Even so, DOD has asked the commission for its recommendation, which is due by the end of May.

Mr. Klomp says the commission needs to see a report due out early next year from Mitretek, an outside consultant studying the issue, and a study by ACWA officials of the problems already encountered in shipping hydrolysate from nerve agent destroyed at the Army's Newport, Ind., facility.

Shipping the hydrolysate to a central processing plant also would mean about 76 fewer jobs would be created for the demilitarization program here. However, that number might be offset if truckers who would haul the waste were based in Pueblo.

Shipment of hydrolysate could cause delays if communities along the route were to raise legal objections. However, a spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency has reported that 6.7 million gallons of hydrolysate produced during mustard agent neutralization at the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Maryland were shipped to New Jersey by truck in 1,301 loads with never any mishap or incident en route.

While we'd prefer to see all of the process done at PCD, we are also mindful of the continued delays which have in the past plagued the program. We'd hate to see the debate over where the hydrolysate should be treated cause another lengthy delay.

The bottom line is that demilitarization of the mustard munitions should be started sooner, rather than later. The decision on what to do with the hydrolysate should not become an impediment to getting the job done in the most expeditious manner possible.