| Article Last Updated: 01/20/2005 |
| Mustard gas won't come to Utah, Coloradans say |
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WASHINGTON - Colorado's two
U.S. senators say they have received Pentagon assurances that the Army will
not ship decaying WWII mustard-agent weapons from that state to Utah for
disposal. But environmentalists are skeptical and newly elected Utah Gov.
Jon Huntsman Jr. says he is concerned about any potential relocation of weapons. Last week, a Dec. 21 Defense Department memo surfaced outlining Army plans to study options, including relocation, for speeding up the destruction of America's stockpile of aging blister bombs and other chemical munitions. "This is something we are watching closely because we are concerned about the possible transportation of these materials to Utah," said Jason Chaffetz, Huntsman's chief of staff. "Jon Huntsman has only been in office for less than three weeks, so it's something we are working to learn more about." Huntsman throughout his campaign and in public statements since his Jan. 3 inauguration has vowed to fight attempts to make Utah a dumping ground for radioactive waste or other toxics. Pentagon officials have said it is premature to speculate on possible relocation of existing stockpiles to sites with operating disposal facilities, such as the incinerator at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. That plant has destroyed about half the stockpile stored at neighboring Deseret Chemical Depot. After an hourlong meeting Tuesday with a deputy assistant to the secretary of defense and DOD's assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar announced they had received assurances the Army will destroy mustard-gas weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot rather than relocate them to another disposal facility. "It is essential that this project be completed as quickly as possible and in the safest way possible," Allard said. The Army halted design work on a disposal facility at Pueblo for nine months last year because of concerns over escalating costs. Organizations monitoring the disposal of stockpiles across the country charged during a telephone conference call Wednesday that the promises made to Colorado lawmakers fly in the face of what they believe are relocation planning activities now under way. "In conversations with several sources I was told point blank a study of shipping Colorado's stockpile to Utah is under way at this moment," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky. He declined requests by reporters to reveal his sources. Activists monitoring disposal programs in Utah, Oregon, Alabama and Arkansas vowed to mobilize to thwart any Pentagon plan to move chemical weapons from other states to existing incinerators or neutralizers in their states. "If they try to ship chemical weapons to Utah, they better hope the trucks have reverse because we will force them to go back," said Jason Groenewold of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. Opponents of relocation said the law is on their side under the 1995 Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress, which prohibited transportation of any chemical munitions stockpiled in one state to another. |