Tuscaloosa News
February 3, 2003

Bush budget notes chemical incineration program "ineffective"

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A federal program to destroy chemical weapons at Anniston Army Depot and several other sites received a failing grade Monday in the budget President Bush submitted to Congress.

The "ineffective" mark for chemical demilitarization was one of few admissions of failure in the document, which typically boasts about popular spending projects while downplaying the lowlights and proposed cuts.

"The program has faced a number of challenges including schedule delays and cost overruns at several sites, thus challenging the (nation's) ability to meet treaty deadlines," according to the program's assessment tucked inside the budget outline.

The acknowledgment largely underscored the complaints lawmakers from Alabama and other incineration sites have been making for months about the program. Anniston's incinerator was built to destroy 2,254 tons of outdated chemical agents and munitions, and while construction is finished, state regulators haven't yet declared it safe enough for a trial burn. It was supposed to begin this month.

Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican who last week fired off a letter threatening to withdraw his Senate support for the $1 billion project unless key safety concerns were answered, said the "ineffective" rating should have been obvious.

"The safe operation of the Anniston incineration facility is paramount," Shelby said.

Craig Williams, director of the watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, said major changes should be undertaken so Monday's budget scolding isn't just treated as a slap on the hand.

"They need to reevaluate the technology of choice at several of the sites where they're trying to proceed with a rather horrific track record, not only in technological ability but community protection," Williams said. "We can declare it ineffective for the next 10 years. That's not going to solve the problem. The question becomes what do we do about it."

The Army issued a statement Monday touting progress it has made this year at other incineration and neutralization sites in Utah, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland and Indiana but leaving out any mention of Anniston. It also pledged the Army's commitment to "keeping the public safe" while still "reducing the stockpile."

Besides the criticism of the demilitarization program, Alabama military initiatives fared relatively well under Bush's request for the budget year beginning in October. Military construction money would jump from $22 million this year to $34 million, almost half of which would go to National Guard units. In addition, Maxwell Air Force Base would receive $13.4 million.

Missile defense, which has a huge presence in Huntsville, would get $7.7 billion, a billion-dollar hike. A projection for 2005 would raise the sum another $1 billion. Another Huntsville project, the Longbow Hellfire missile system, would receive only $43 million and no new construction after this year's order of 1,797 new missiles.