Depot to begin operating six days a week
New schedule to meet land mine destruction deadline

RICHMOND -- Employees of the Blue Grass Army Depot will be expanding their work week from five to six days to complete the work of destroying land mines by the end of the federal fiscal year.

This extension will mean that depot conventional munitions can be expected Monday through Saturday with up to two sets of explosions each day.

Unusual weather patterns during the conventional work week since the destruction season began in March of this year created a backlog in the work.

Operations on Saturday is a temporary condition. The depot will return to Monday through Friday operations as soon as the backlog is eliminated.

The depot was assigned the task for destroying more than 92,000 land mines this year as part of the United States' commitment in support of an international effort for demilitarization of land mines.

Under presidential executive order, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines are being destroyed. Although more costly and less efficient, the depot has been destroying mines in smaller batches to mitigate the disturbances to people living near the depot.

Planning to eliminate most, if not all of the open detonations, has been a priority at the depot, said Stephanie Parrett, community outreach specialist for the Blue Grass Chemical Stockpile Outreach Office.

A $17 million complex has been designed to introduce maturing alternative technologies to replace the need to open detonate. The depot is seeking the funds to construct this complex and have it in full operation by the year 2010.

Residents living in the vicinity of the depot are encouraged to contact the depot's Public Affairs Office if the detonations cause an inconvenience.

Dave Easter, public affairs officer for the depot, can be reached by calling 779-6221 or send an e-mail to dave.easter@bluegrass. army.mil.