WASHINGTON - Utah's Republicans in Congress are making a bid to save Deseret Chemical Depot from closure by suggesting it be converted for disposal of conventional weapons once it completes destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile.

"You could transform what's already there," Rep. Rob Bishop said in an interview Wednesday.

"Rather than just tearing down the facility that you spent a billion dollars to put up, making it useful would keep jobs there and keep it [running]."

The Pentagon recommended to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the incinerator near Tooele close and be torn down once it finishes its mission burning about 45 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile.

But in a letter last week to Anthony Principi, chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the Utah Republicans requested that commissioners reject the Pentagon's suggestion and leave open the option that Deseret's mission could be changed to dispose of aging shells, rockets and missile parts.

"This large investment should not be abandoned," the Utahns wrote. "It would be a more responsible use of taxpayer funds, as well as more environmentally friendly, to consider converting the chemical destruction plant to a conventional munitions disposal operation rather than completely dismantling and tearing down this facility."

Demolition at Deseret is not imminent. The Utah members said a senior Pentagon official confirmed to them that work at the incinerator is far behind schedule and the earliest the work could be completed is 2012. That is three years later than the Pentagon told Congress earlier this year.

To make the change, Congress would have to change the existing law, which calls for the incinerator to be decommissioned and torn down. It would also require renegotiating the existing agreement between the governor and the Army.

According to a report by the Army Materiel Command, which is responsible for munitions disposal, there are about 397,000 tons of conventional munitions awaiting disposal at the end of the 2004 budget year.

Existing defense facilities can dispose of a maximum of about 156,000 tons of weapons annually, although about 41,000 tons were disposed of in 2004 and 56,000 added to the stockpile.

Bishop said the munitions are currently burned or detonated in the open, "which has its own environmental problems."

The Pentagon already recommended in its May report the closure of Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada - where the munitions are currently disposed of - and relocating the storage and demilitarization functions to Tooele Army Depot. The proposal has been met with strong resistance from the Hawthorne community.

The delegation's letter is attached to a 370-page engineering study commissioned by the Pentagon in 1991, which says it is technically possible, but could be costly to convert the incinerator.

Utah's members say the growing stockpile of obsolete conventional munitions and increased environmental restrictions that prevent most disposal methods call into question the expense estimates.

The Commission is scheduled to meet Aug. 22 to make changes to the closure and realignment list.

If it opts not to make the change regarding Deseret, Congress could still pass legislation to convert the facility. But Bishop said it would be easier if the BRAC commission recommends the switch.