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Fight is on over Pueblo project

Colorado's senators oppose Pentagon's proposal to halt weapons destruction

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
February 10, 2005

Colorado's two U.S. senators pledged Wednesday to fight the Pentagon's plans to halt a $1.6 billion chemical weapons destruction program at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

In a sternly worded letter to Defense Department officials, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar pledged to oppose any attempt to stop the Pueblo project and shift the money to other chemical weapons disposal facilities already operating.

Plans have been in the works for 19 years to build disposal plants to destroy the entire United States chemical weapons stockpile stored at eight U.S. arsenals, including Pueblo, which has more than 2,600 tons of mustard agent in 780,000 chemical munitions.

The chemical weapons are to be destroyed by 2012 under an international treaty.

Last Friday, Undersecretary of Defense Michael W. Wynne informed Salazar and Allard that because of potential cost overruns at Pueblo, he was directing the Army to suspend the project and study alternatives, including shipping the weapons at Pueblo to other facilities for disposal.

The senators said Wynne had assured them two weeks earlier that the Pueblo project, although delayed by several years, would proceed and that the weapons would not be moved.

Allard assailed the Pentagon on Wednesday for "unconscionable" delays at the Pueblo plant despite $172 million in congressional funding for the project in the past two years.

"The funding is available right now to fulfill the commitment to the people of Pueblo," he said.

Pueblo has viewed the project as an economic boon, providing $1.6 billion in spending and 1,000 jobs.

Salazar pledged Wednesday to watch the Pentagon closely and "review any decision to reallocate funding already identified" for the Pueblo project.

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