Local chemical weapons transport fight gets out-of-town support
By Ryan Garrett/Register News Writer

The local fight against chemical weapons transport now has some out-of-town support.

Two U.S. senators from Colorado - Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar - a Republican and Democrat, respectively, introduced legislation Wednesday that would prohibit the Department of Defense from studying the possibility of shipping chemical weapons across state lines.

In his floor statement, Allard called the department's study "unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars."

"I have already been told by Pentagon officials that the study is going to conclude that the transportation of chemical munitions across state lines is not practical," Allard said.

"If that is the case, why do the study?" he asked. "Why waste $150,000 to study the feasibility of an option that is against the law and has already been determined by the Pentagon to be impractical?"

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Jim Bunning, both Republicans from Kentucky, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., joined Allard and Salazar as co-sponsors.

"One of the first meetings I had as a U.S. senator 20 years ago was about the aging chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Ky.," McConnell said in a statement released Wednesday.

"At the time, the Army was ignoring the concerns of the community and attempting to incinerate the weapons irrespective of the potential risk," McConnell said. "Not much has changed."

The weapons need to be destroyed at the locations where they are stored, McConnell said.

"Moving 60-year-old stockpiles of leaking mustard agent is not a solution to a budget problem," he said. "It is a recipe for disaster."

The legislation is important because it would protect residents around the Blue Grass Army Depot, Bunning said in an e-mailed statement.

"We must do everything in our power to make sure that these weapons are destroyed in a safe and timely manner, and not allow the Department of Defense to further delay this project or endanger the population," he said.

Craig Williams, who has worked with McConnell and Bunning many times as director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, said he was pleased to see the Kentucky senators support the legislation.

"We appreciate the senators' consistent willingness to do what it takes to ensure our weapons are destroyed as quickly and safely as possible at the depot and at the same time to prevent unnecessary risk to other communities," Williams said.

A day after Pentagon officials met with the Colorado senators, the Chemical Weapons Working Group released internal documents showing that the Pentagon's assurances conflicted with directives issued this month by Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Patrick Wakefield.

Earlier in the month, William's citizen's watchdog organization, released documents showing the Pentagon plans to gut funding for disposal facilities at both the Pueblo Chemical Depot and locally at the Blue Grass Army Depot over the next five years.

Both sites challenged the Army's plans to destroy their stockpiles with incinerator facilities because of safety concerns, ultimately deciding to use a new technology with which the communities were more comfortable.

Under the proposed funding cuts, the result of expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army could not afford to build the alternative facilities, with the Richmond facility alone projected to cost about $2 billion.

The documents released last week showed that the Pentagon was considering transporting the stockpiles to incinerator sites in other states to meet the Chemical Weapons Convention deadline of 2012 for demilitarization.

The House also is looking at similar legislation to that introduced in the Senate.

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Salazar of Colorado introduced the legislation, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District.

Along with the proposed federal legislation, local governments are taking steps to prevent any transfer.

The Richmond City Commission approved the first reading of an ordinance Tuesday that would make it a crime to transport chemical weapons within city limits.

Under the proposed ordinance, which still faces a second reading, violators could be fined up to $5,000, and their vehicles impounded at their point of origin.

Garrett Fowles, the city's legal counsel, said the ordinance would not be enforceable, but would still be "highly valuable as a symbolic object."

Ryan Garrett can be reached at rgarrett@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 234.