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RICHMOND - There was no ticker tape parade
down Main Street. Nobody led a stanza of "For he's a jolly good fellow." But
that was about all that was missing from the hero's welcome U.S. Sen. Mitch
McConnell received at a news conference in Richmond Wednesday afternoon.
Local leaders repeatedly and enthusiastically lauded McConnell for his work
to persuade the Pentagon to restore funding to rid Madison County of 523
tons of aging and deteriorating chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
McConnell, the Senate majority whip,
was credited with convincing the Department of Defense to do an about-face
last month after the Pentagon had announced plans to freeze funding to build
chemical weapons neutralization facilities in Madison County and Colorado.
The Pentagon changed course, agreeing to restore funding for the plant, which
will cost an estimated $2 billion to build and operate. The Pentagon also
agreed to scrap plans to study transporting the chemical weapons to other
storage sites around the country, which had triggered outrage among officials
in the region who feared an accident or attack on lethal nerve and mustard
agents.
The decision is of interest to Clark County because the chemical and mustard
projectiles, which are among the deadliest weapons in America's military
stockpile, are stored in concrete and earth-covered igloos just 11 miles
southwest of the county line. The Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG),
a watchdog organization, says a terrorist attack on the chemical stockpile
could have deadly consequences not just in Madison County, but beyond.
The neutralization plant also has the potential to have economic benefits
to Clark Countians, with hundreds of jobs expected to be created during the
construction stage, and 1,000 more once the plant begins disposal operations.
Congress ordered the stockpile destroyed in 1985 and an international treaty
requires the U.S. Army to destroy them by 2012. It contains VX, which has
been described as the deadliest chemical on earth, as well as GB, which is
500 times more toxic than cyanide, and mustard agent.
Craig Williams, director of the CWWG, said it took McConnell's clout to convince
the Department of Defense to restore funds to destroy the chemical weapons
in Central Kentucky. Williams said McConnell repeatedly wrote memos and made
telephone calls to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to push for the
project to be put back on track.
"The Pentagon decided they didn't want to spend another dime ridding Kentucky
of the risks posed by these weapons," Williams explained. "And they declared
us a caretaker site for the next six years. Incredibly, their plan was to
cut off funding and have us babysit these weapons until 2011, before proceeding
to finish the design of the disposal facility."
McConnell inserted language in the 2005 Iraq-Afghan War Supplemental Bill
that requires the Department of Defense to release funds for the design and
construction of the neutralization plant and requires bimonthly reporting
to Congress on the expenditure of the funds and prohibits studying transporting
the weapons across state lines.
"We believe this completely walls off and eliminates alternatives," McConnell
said.
However, McConnell told a group of local dignitaries and citizens at Wednesday's
news conference that the fight for continued funding is not over.
"I have a sneaky suspicion that this won't be the last challenge we're going
to have on this issue in the coming years," he said. "Hopefully, we'll all
see the day when these weapons, which were foolishly produced in the first
place, (will be destroyed)."
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