richmond Register
May 23, 2003

U.S. Senate provision will require update of monitoring system

By Jodi Whitaker

A provision in the U.S. Senate's Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Authorization Bill will require the secretary of the Army to update the chemical agent monitoring system at all stockpile sites, including the one at the Blue Grass Army Depot, if adopted by the house and signed into law by President George W. Bush.

According to a statement from U.S. Senator Jim Bunning, who drafted the provision, the move will require the Army to take steps to better protect everyone in areas were chemical demilitarization is or will be taking place.

"This provision not only gets the ball rolling on having the Army set forth a plan for enhanced chemical agent monitoring in and around the Blue Grass Army Depot, but it covers all the other sites across the United States, as well," Bunning said. "I look forward to following up on this issue with Craig Williams' help to ensure the Army gets this initiative developed and deployed in a timely manner. This is common sense stuff, and I am eager to get with Craig and the Chemical Weapons Working Group to help better protect the public, the personnel in the chemical demilitarization program, and our environment."

The provision passed the Armed Services Committee, then became part of the entire defense bill, said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group.

The bill passed the Senate Thursday by a vote of 98-1. The House passed its version of the defense bill, which doesn't include the provision. Committees will meet to iron out language for the final bill, which will be signed into law by the president once passed.
Williams said he expects the bill to receive its final passage in October, with the monitoring provision included.

"We think they're going to accept it, and we think there are a number of reasons it will stay," Williams said.

The current homeland security focus on chemical weapons is one factor Williams said he thinks will help the provision be accepted.

"You want to have the most adequate monitoring possibilities you can have," Williams said. "The same applies to the place where we have chemical weapons sitting around."

Williams said another factor in helping the bill pass with the provision is its endorsement by every senator in states with chemical weapons.

The Army also agrees the monitoring needs to be done, Williams said, which will be another big boost for the provision.

"What you've got here is the Congress saying it needs to be done, the communities saying it needs to be done, and the Army saying it needs to be done," Williams said. "Everybody is on the same page. What that indicates to us is that it will get done."

Williams said the provision will require the Army to monitor all three types of chemical warfare agents stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot simultaneously - the blister agent mustard and nerve agents GB and VX - providing real-time or immediate reaction should the agents ever become present in the air.

"If there's a leak at the depot and the agent gets out of the depot, if these monitors are deployed, it will monitor that within 10 seconds, instead of 25 minutes like it currently does," Williams said. "We think that's a tremendous advantage in the context of being able to respond if there were to be an emergency."

Williams said the provision would not slow down the chemical demilitarization process at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

"It won't slow anything down here," Williams said. "It will add to the level of protection and the safety of the continued storage of chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot, and the disposal when we get to that phase."