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Utah Lawmakers Push to Keep Deseret Open Once Chemical Weapons Destruction is Complete
In an effort to keep the Deseret Chemical Depot from closing, congressional Republicans from Utah are pushing for the facility to destroy conventional weapons once all the chemical weapons stored there are destroyed, the Salt Lake Tribune reported today (see GSN, May 16). “You could transform what's already there,” said Representative Rob Bishop. “Rather than just tearing down the facility that you spent a billion dollars to put up, making it useful would keep jobs there and keep it (running).” Deseret is slated for closure once weapons destruction is complete, according to the Tribune. That had been scheduled to occur in 2008, but the Utah lawmakers said a senior Defense Department official told them that work is now not expected to finish before 2012. The Utah Republicans have asked the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to consider using the depot to destroy conventional shells, missile components and rockets. “This large investment should not be abandoned,” they wrote in a letter to the commission chairman. “It would be a more responsible use of taxpayer funds, as well as more environmentally friendly, to consider converting the chemical destruction plant to a conventional munitions disposal operation rather than completely dismantling and tearing down this facility.” For the Republicans’ plan to move forward, a change would be needed to existing law requiring the base to be destroyed once work is complete, and an agreement between Utah’s governor and the Army would have to be renegotiated (Robert Gehrke, Salt Lake Tribune, Aug. 4).
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