Salt Lake Tribune
October 31, 2003

WMD burners are far behind

By Christopher Smith
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON -- The Army's program to destroy America's aging stockpile of chemical weapons at facilities in Tooele and elsewhere is woefully behind schedule to meet an international treaty's deadline next year, a federal investigator told Congress on Thursday.
 
While the Army's incineration facility at Tooele has destroyed 44 percent of its inventory of decaying nerve gas and blister agent bombs, "substantial delays" have resulted at the Utah site due to a safety breakdown in July 2002, Henry Hinton of the General Accounting Office (GAO) told the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities.
   
Hinton delivered the latest of 25 reports issued since 1990 by the federal watchdog agency on the military's chemical demilitarization program, and like half of the previous reports, the latest update was critical of the Army's ability to meet scheduled milestones, contain costs, improve safety and manage the arms destruction consistently and effectively.
   
"Despite recent efforts to improve the management and streamline the organization of the Chem-Demil program, the program has suffered from several longstanding and unresolved leadership, organizational and strategic planning issues," Hinton said in his prepared testimony.
   
   
April deadline: As a result, the United States will not meet the April deadline in the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty ratified by Congress in 1997, which requires that 45 percent of the nation's 31,500 tons of World War II-era chemical weapons be destroyed. Unless current delays are remedied, the GAO says the program also will fail to meet not only the April 2007 deadline for total elimination of the weapons stockpile, but also it won't be done until well after an available five-year extension to 2012.
   
Army officials told Congress they are working to meet deadlines at the Tooele plant and at smaller stockpile sites in Arkansas, Alabama and Maryland.
   
"The Army is committed to meeting the U.S.'s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention [treaty] and we will continue to explore any available means to accelerate the destruction of the nation's stockpile without compromising our commitment to do so safely and effectively," Michael Parker, acting director of the Army's Chemical Material Agency, said in a statement.
   
History of problems: At Tooele, a plant worker accidentally came into contact with a nerve agent during routine maintenance in July 2002 and that led to suspension of agent-destruction operations until March 2003.
   
But even since the restart, the Tooele incinerator has experienced numerous temporary shutdowns due to safety breaches and malfunctions.
   
The GAO blames the program's revolving-door leadership for a lack of continuity that has obscured accountability, delayed processing of agents and prompted the estimated costs for the destruction to rise from $15 billion in 1998 to $24 billion in 2001.
   
"When key leaders do not remain in their positions to develop the needed long-term perspective on program issues and effectively implement program initiatives, it is difficult to maintain program process and ensure accountability for leadership actions," Hinton said.