GAO Questions Chemical Depot Closure Schedule

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report questions whether the Deseret, Newport and Umatilla chemical weapons depots will finish eliminating their stockpiles in time to be closed as proposed in May by the U.S. Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure committee (see GSN, May 16).

“Given the general delays in the Army’s chemical weapons destruction program it is uncertain that it will be able to complete the chemical weapons destruction mission and close these depots within the 6-year BRAC statutory implementation period,” the agency said in its report released last week.

Deseret Chemical Depot spokeswoman Alaine Southworth admitted that a 2007 goal for weapons destruction might slip “just a bit” but added, “We've always talked about being down to the ground by 2010.” She noted that this is within the federal time frame, the Salt Lake Tribune reported today.

Deseret, located in Utah and originally slated for closure in 2007, is more than half finished with weapons destruction (Matthew LaPlante, Salt Lake Tribune, July 6).

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