Additional mustard agent won't be coming to Tooele County after all.

In a letter dated April 15, 2005, Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne ordered that all Congressionally appropriated funds to construct neutralization facilities in Pueblo, Colo. and Richmond, Ky., be released.

Until the letter was sent, the money had been held up while the Defense Department studied the possibility of shipping chemical weapons from places like Pueblo to Tooele. Wynne's order will free up around $300 million that will be used to construct chemical destruction plants in Colorado and Kentucky during 2005. Additional money is expected to be appropriated for FY 2006.

Utah Congressional representatives, including Sen. Bob Bennett, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Congressman Jim Matheson, as well as Gov. Jon Huntsman, had spoken out in opposition to the plan to ship over 780,000 chemical weapons filled with over five million pounds of Mustard Agent to Tooele from Pueblo.

"If our elected representatives had not spoken out, the feds would still be studying ways to force-feed us this nasty brew of chemical weapons," said Jason Groenewold, Director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

"Utah has done more than its fair share, and we appreciate what our delegation has done to safeguard public health and safety."

The Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a coalition of organizations across the country working for the safe disposal of chemical weapons, first uncovered the plans to study the possibility of transporting such weapons from various sites to places like Utah in January.

CWWG claims that fierce public and political opposition to the plan resulted in the "about face" by Defense officials.

"The effort put forward by the Congressional delegations from impacted states was extraordinary in response to community concerns surrounding the Pentagon's plan to stop the disposal of these weapons," said CWWG Director Craig Williams. "This is a tremendous development and a win for the citizens who would be negatively affected by this absurd plan."

The chemical weapons incinerator at Deseret Chemical Depot has been burning chemical weapons since 1996. More than half of the original stockpile has already been incinerated. The destruction of all munitions was set to be completed by 2004, but Army officials have now said it will be at least 2007 before the stockpile is completely destroyed.

The depot is currently in the process of destroying VX nerve agent.

e-mail: kscott@tooeletranscript.com