Bayh pledges to work for VX destruction

By Patricia L. Pastore/Tribune-Star

December 22, 2004

U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh pledges to work for continued funding for the VX Neutralization Project at Newport Chemical Depot despite possible budget cuts.

Destroying VX stored at the Depot is an important homeland security issue, the senator's press secretary said Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Defense recently issued an order stopping the design of the chemical weapons processing portion of a weapons disposal project at the Pueblo, Colo., Depot.

"The Defense Department directed the contractor, Bechtel National Inc., to stop certain design tasks while studying ways to reduce size and costs," said Katherine B. DeWeese, public affairs officer for the Program Manager Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. "These studies and independent reviews should be completed by fall 2005. Bechtel staffing has been reduced to accommodate this more limited scope of work."

DeWeese said this order is a method of cutting expenses.

"The design work is on hold, while we examine ways to better control project size and cost without compromising safety and environmental protection," she said.

Rumors are rampant in Vermillion and surrounding counties concerning the possible shutdown of the VX destruction facility on the Chemical Depot.

Bayh is committed to seeing the threat VX poses to the safety of his constituents eliminated as quickly as possible.

"Senator Bayh believes the work done at Newport is crucial to our nation's homeland security efforts and the safety of millions of Hoosiers who live in western and central Indiana," said Meghan Keck, Bayh's press secretary. "The progress made to accelerate the neutralization effort represents years of work by area residents, the military and government officials. Senator Bayh will fight any attempt made by the Pentagon to cut funding or delay the important work being done at Newport."

The Department of Defense, defense acquisition board, met Nov. 19 to address funding for the Chemical Demilitarization program for fiscal year 2006 and future years.

No information about that meeting was available, said Cheryl Irwin, a spokeswoman for the Defense Acquisition Board.

According to Irwin: "The [acquisition decision memorandum] has not yet been completed, and until it is officially signed, it's premature to speculate. I am expecting it to be signed perhaps tomorrow or Thursday."

Army contractor Parsons Technology has said the staff is certified and ready to neutralize VX at Newport.

Parsons' staff passed the tests and government Project Site Manager Jeff Brubaker has agreed with Parsons vice president John Stewart that the employees are well-trained and have proven themselves capable of operating the facility to neutralize the 1,269 tons of VX stored there.

Containers are on hand to store VX hydrolysate, a caustic byproduct of neutralization. In fact, both the Army and Parsons have said there is sufficient storage available on-site to begin operations today. The slow startup pace planned would allow Parsons to continually neutralize VX for a period of about a year.

This would give the Centers for Disease Control sufficient time to finish its report concerning hydrolysate transportation to the DuPont Chambers Works Plant in New Jersey and allow the CDC to complete its report on disposal facility operations.

The Army pledged it will do nothing with the deadly nerve agent VX until the CDC report is finished and it has the opportunity to review it. Yet the Army continues to maintain that continued storage of VX is the greatest risk.

It costs about $360,000 a day to maintain and secure the depot, including continuous staff training and updating at the chemical neutralization facility under Parsons directions, according to information provided by the Army earlier this year.

If this project is put in mothballs by the Army, it would take at least two years to train a staff to duplicate the efforts of the trained staff standing by now, awaiting the Army's signal to begin destroying nerve agent VX.

Designing and building the facility and training the work force cost an estimated $750 million in taxpayers dollars.

Bayh is monitoring the tax dollars, too, Keck said.

Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812)231-4271 or pat.pastore@tribstar.com.