CWWG: Pentagon misusing funds for depots
By Ryan Garrett/Register News Writer

BEREA - The Pentagon should have had half a billion dollars saved up when it ordered a halt last month in preliminary construction for a chemical demilitarization facility at Blue Grass Army Depot, according to calculations by a Berea-based citizen's watchdog organization.

Rather than spending the money at Blue Grass and Pueblo (Colo.) Chemical Depot, the Pentagon has been either saving it or spending it at other sites, said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group.

However, the funds had been appropriated by Congress through previous federal budgets for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA), the Department of Defense program in charge of destroying the depots' chemical weapons stockpiles.

"In addition to the severe cuts projected for fiscal year 2006, there are hundreds of millions of dollars authorized by and appropriated by the Congress to the ACWA program that the Pentagon has unilaterally decided it is going to freeze," Williams said.

"What they've done is they've usurped the power vested in Congress," he said.

Williams is not the only one to take notice.

In a letter earlier this month, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar of Colorado, a Republican and Democrat, respectively, responded to Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne's statement that existing sites must take precedence over sites in the design phase.

In the two most recent Department of Defense appropriations bills, "Congress has provided significant funding resources for the Pueblo project," including $50 million for research and development Allard requested be added to the fiscal year 2005 budget, the senators wrote.

"We understand a significant portion of these appropriated funds have not been spent and could be used to complete early construction activities scheduled for phase I and phase II of the project," they wrote.

The senators also dismissed Wynne's claims that destruction program is based on a "technically challenging neutralization-based program."

"As you are certainly aware, the National Research Council of the National Acadamy of Sciences recently completed a review of this program and concluded that (the method) is an effective and safe way to destroy those materials," the letter states.

According to the senators, the review also states that "Any change in budget priorities that jeopardizeds accelerated chemical weapons destruction at Pueblo Chemical Depot would undercut the committment by the state to this effort and diminish the trust acquired with the local community and interested regional and national stakeholder groups, leaving in its wake a sense of betrayal."

The department would not obligate itself to a specific design for the demilitarization facility by finishing the first two phases - mostly road and infrastructure work - according to the senators, as well as Williams.

"That money could be used today and should be used today to move this program forward at both Blue Grass and at Pueblo," said Williams, who plans to present his findings today when the Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board meets at the Perkins Building at Eastern Kentucky University.

"The only reason (the Pentagon) would freeze phase I construction money is because they don't want to build anything here ever," he said.

While some expect the Pentagon to eventually agree to build a smaller - i.e. cheaper - facility at Blue Grass and Pueblo to be operated for an extended period, Williams does not expect that to be the case.

"If that's what they're looking at, then this transportation option is a red herring, (and) the freeze on phase I dollars for construction is ludicrous," Williams said. "If all they're looking at is modifying the design to a smaller scale to save money, if that's they're motivation, they wouldn't be freezing this front-end work.

"And the fact that they've got hundreds of millions of dollars against which they could execute this front-end work indicates that there's more to this than just the size of this plant," he said.

The Pentagon needs to tell Congress about the increased expenses it faces at other sites and ask for adequate funding to cover all the sites rather than transferring funds from one to another, Williams said.

"Rather than admit to that, they're trying to low-ball these annual budgets to make it look as though this program is under some sort of fiscal control - not the ACWA program but the overall demilitarization program - and using us as the billpayers in that context," he said. "There's a question of accountability here that directly affects our community."

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