Pueblo Chemical Weapons Disposal Waste to be Treated at Depot
Thursday, May 14, 2009

The U.S. Defense Department does not plan to transport waste produced through chemical neutralization of mustard blister agent stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado to another facility for treatment, U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said yesterday (see GSN, April 13).

The Pentagon informed lawmakers this week that it had determined it would not save money or speed the rate of chemical demilitarization by moving the hydrolysate wastewater to an off-site location. Instead, a treatment plant would be built at Pueblo.

Udall's press release did not indicate whether the Defense Department's finding also applied to the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, where a stockpile of chemical warfare materials is also set to be neutralized in coming years. A Udall spokeswoman and the Pentagon's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, which will manage disposal at the locations, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline today.

Pueblo and Blue Grass Army Depot are the only two U.S. chemical warfare material storage sites where disposal operations have not been initiated. Demilitarization plants at both installations are not expected to open for several years, and work is expected to continue long past the April 2012 deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention for full elimination of the U.S. chemical arsenal.

Udall noted that the Pentagon's proposed budget for fiscal 2010 increases spending to prepare the two sites for demilitarization activities to $550 million. That is an increase of $250 million from anticipated levels and would help ensure that Pueblo meets the 2017 congressional deadline to complete operations, the senator said (see GSN, May 8).

“The people of Pueblo have been waiting a long time for good news about the weapons stored in their community, and I am very happy to see that the Pentagon has finally seen the light about the need to accelerate the weapons destruction and keep all the work on-site,” Udall said in a press release. “The plan laid out today will keep the construction of the treatment facilities and destruction of these dangerous weapons going around the clock, and all of the work will be done locally, creating jobs and opportunity for workers in Pueblo" (U.S. Senator Mark Udall release, May 13).