Chemical Weapons Demilitarization on Fast Track: Defense Department Steps Up Chemical Demilitarization Plan
By John Norton, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
Nov. 15–Now that Congress has ordered that weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot be destroyed by 2017, Defense Department officials have started to look at just how they’re going to accomplish that.
A recently passed defense bill mandated that the Colorado and Kentucky stockpiles be destroyed within a decade, instead of the 2020 and 2023 completion dates the Defense Department has been projecting.
Kevin Flamm, manager of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, which is in charge of those two projects, said Wednesday night that his office has begun looking at a number of options for getting the job done.
Both locations are using water neutralization to destroy the weapons — mustard agent stored in Pueblo and mustard and nerve agent at Blue Grass.
In addition to coming up with a price tag for meeting the earlier deadline, Flamm said he’s also asked for an analysis of what it would take to finish the work by 2012, the treaty deadline that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States would not meet. Speaking to the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission, which met in Boone Wednesday, Flamm said, “You wouldn’t believe how many calls I get from the State Department asking if we can finish by 2012.”
While it’s not as likely that will happen, Flamm definitely will give Congress an idea of what it’s going to cost each year to meet the 2017 deadline. Up until that bill was passed, the Defense Department was planning on splitting $300 million annually between the two projects. In addition to the new deadline, the legislation also added $10 million to the fiscal 2008 budget.
In other business, Greg Severance, the county’s public works director, told the commission that work is underway on the Defense Access Road project that will improve the ability of contractors and workers to get to the chemical demilitarizations project.
Construction started Sept. 17 and this month concrete paving is being put in on westbound William White Boulevard. Work also is being done on United Avenue where a culvert is being replaced. The project includes the extension of William White to Colorado 47, providing the Airport Industrial Park with a second access. Severance also said that funds will be made available soon to cover the cost increase in the project caused by delays waiting for environmental approvals. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., included language in the military construction bill, now in conference committee, that would allow military construction funds to be transferred to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
On a related note, Kevin Blose, of the Pueblo Chemical Depot, said that the new access point off of DOT road that was installed for the chem demil project, will open Dec. 3. Currently workers and construction crews are getting to the site via the depot entry off of U.S. 50.
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