Board considers three new designs for weapons plant
Ronica Brandenburg/Register News Writer

The Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board (CDCAB) met Tuesday to entertain three redesign recommendations for the chemical destruction plan to be built at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

Members of the Kentucky Chemical Demilitarization Citizen's Advisory Commission met April 20 and decided on the redesigns that are to reduce costs and speed the process of destroying chemical weapons.

The most controversial of the three is a plan to ship hydrolysates - chemical residue that is a result of neutralization - to an off-site location.

Members of the study team will consider identifying commercial facilities legally able and willing to process the wastes, determine the costs benefits and information associated with risks and develop a comprehensive plan of action, said Jim Richmond, program manager for assembled chemical weapons alternatives and design consideration team leader.

"We're trying to get as much input on this as we can," said Chris Midgett, project manager for Bechtel-Parsons Blue Grass.  Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, is not counting on the idea of transporting the chemicals to make it very far in the consideration process.

"It seems to be a broad-based consensus that it's not going to survive," he said. "But it's still on the table and it has to run its course."

Another possible design would include limiting the amount of supercritical water oxidation machines, which break down chemicals with high pressure and heat, from five to four. Each unit costs $10 million. The only way this design would be used is if the group decides against delivering the chemicals to an off-site location.

The use of conveyors and cranes would be eliminated in another plan to implement fork lifts to transport weapons to their point of neutralization.

The Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) was originally designed to cost $2.4 billion and focus on the speedy destruction of the weapons, but based on memorandums from the Department of Defense, Bechtel-Parsons Blue Grass was directed to shift the focus from schedule to balancing costs. The new amount to be spent on the facility currently is $2 billion.

The necessary changes will delay the destruction of the weapons about one year, which may cause the United States to miss the 2012 international treaty deadline, Midgett said.

"Hopefully, if we get on schedule, we'll only be losing one year," said Jim Fritsche, site project manager for Bechtel-Parsons Blue Grass. "The redesign will allow us to save on maintenance, operational and transportation costs, which will all be decreased with this smaller facility."

All design considerations must be filtered through the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a citizen's watchdog organization. The group will return their findings to the CDCAB and to the public as to which considerations should be implemented.

Design studies are to be completed between June and August and the redesign must be 60 percent complete by February 2006. Construction of the facility is tenativley set to begin Spring 2006, said Mickey Morales, public outreach manager for Bechtel-Parsons Blue Grass.

Fiscal year 2006 funds for the BGCAPP project will be released pending approval of President Bush's budget.

Ronica Brandenburg can be reached at rbrandenburg@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.