LOCAL
Friday, May 14, 2009
Weapons at Depot now last to go
Herald-Leader Wire Report
The Pentagon says a chemical weapons storage site in Kentucky will be the nation's lone stockpile to miss a 2017 deadline imposed by Congress for destroying the deadly munitions.
Although Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond holds just 2 percent of the World War II-era rockets set to be eliminated under an international treaty, it will be the last to start the process and the last to finish, according to a report sent to Congress.
Under the estimate, Blue Grass will begin destroying its weapons in 2019 and finish in 2021. Another storage site in Pueblo, Colo., that also plans to use chemical neutralization rather than incineration will begin in 2014 and end in 2017.
Jean Reed, the Pentagon's deputy assistant for biological defense and chemical demilitarization, said it is impossible for either site to achieve a 2012 destruction deadline mandated under the international treaty. However, 90 percent of the American stockpile will be destroyed by then, using incinerators at other sites, he said.
In the report to Congress, the Defense Department also addressed the possible shipment of chemical warfare agent hydrolysate, the by-product of neutralizing the agents, off-site to incineration facilities far away from the stockpile locations in Pueblo and Blue Grass. On-site destruction of hydrolysate at Pueblo and Blue Grass will continue, unless technical difficulties arise, according to a news release.
"This is yet another piece of good news for Madison County and Central Kentucky," Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, said in the release. "Disposing of hydrolysate at BGAD not only eliminates the possibility of an accident during transport, but also keeps this work in the experienced hands of the hard-working people of Kentucky."
That decision, which was reached after years of studies and recommendations from government officials, was made to comply with the original plan to treat the material on-site.
"This has been a key issue of concern for this community and we have consistently opposed putting this material on the highways, recognizing the risks associated with such movement," Madison County Judge-Executive Kent Clark said.
The destruction date for the deadly munitions in Colorado and Kentucky has been a moving target for years.
Reed said he was confident that this one will stick but made no promises.
"Those have a reasonable confidence level ... but don't buy any lottery tickets on them," Reed said.
Reed said delays were partly due to increased construction costs and the redesign of a building at the Blue Grass Army Depot that will be used in the destruction of the munitions.
The new finish date is two years earlier for Blue Grass and three years earlier for Pueblo than a projection made last fall. That is because President Barack Obama's budget request calls for a major funding boost for the program — including $250 million more in 2010.
Reed said additional money beyond that wouldn't be able to further speed up the time frame, but less could slow it down.
While the Pueblo stockpile is larger than the one in Richmond, it houses only mustard agent. Blue Grass is more complicated because it also holds VX and GB.
When one steel container holding liquid sarin leaked at Blue Grass, an emergency operation was conducted to destroy it and two others ahead of schedule. Reed said that operation had no bearing on the timetable for destroying the larger stockpile.
Carmen Spencer, deputy assistant of the Army for elimination of chemical weapons, said the mustard rockets in Kentucky will be last to go under the program.
"It is the priority of the department to destroy nerve agent projectiles first because they represent the greatest potential risk to the public," he said.
Congress last year set its 2017 deadline for destroying all weapons after a request from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McCon nell, a Kentucky Republican.
Craig Williams of the watchdog group Chemical Weapons Working Group said he had been holding the Pentagon to that date.
Although he acknowledged disappointment that deadline now will be missed for Kentucky, he said he was hopeful the new schedule is achievable.
"What we've got today is finally a definitive projection of what we're looking at," Williams said.