Lawmakers Pledge to Fight U.S. CW Disposal Slowdown

U.S. lawmakers and other officials yesterday said they would oppose the latest Defense Department schedule for elimination of chemical weapons stocks, which now calls for work to be completed in 2023, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 21).

“I am going to continue to lead the fight to ensure that these heinous weapons are disposed of in a safe and timely manner,” said Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

The Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado would be the last sites emptied of chemical weapons.  Based on the latest schedule, complete disposal would occur 11 years after the final deadline allowed by the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In April, U.S. officials indicated that work would not be finished before 2017.

“I am disappointed that this is being delayed, and I will encourage our federal delegation to work with the Department of Defense to expedite the destruction of these weapons,” said Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher.

“Unfortunately, it appears that everything we’ve got in this nation is going to Iraq, and that is the money drain not only on projects here, but all across the nation and it’s very unfortunate,” said state Senator Ed Worley.  “There very well may not be chemical weapons in Iraq, but there sure are in Richmond, Kentucky.”

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton denied any connection between federal funding of chemical weapons disposal and the cost of the war in Iraq.

“Destroying these weapons safely is not a fast, or simple, process,” Upton said in a prepared statement (Joe Biesk, Associated Press, Nov. 21).

The slowdown in disposal is necessitated by funding requests from the Pentagon, the nongovernmental Chemical Weapons Working Group said yesterday.  Budget estimates call for delaying preparations to begin operations at Blue Grass from 2015 to 2017, the organization said.  Disposal operations would be extended from 2 1/2 years to 6 1/2 years.

Pentagon documents indicate that stretching out disposal at Blue Grass and Pueblo would add $3.3 billion to the final price tag for the project, the group said.

“It’s our understanding that the new budget plan would only allow the Kentucky facility to run four days a week instead of the desired seven days per week,” CWWG Director Craig Williams said in a press release.

“This is preposterous,” he added.  “Shutting down the plant three days each week while still maintaining management payrolls, security costs and other expenses is absurd.  If there were ever an example of ‘penny-wise, pound foolish’ this is it” (Chemical Weapons Working Group release, Nov. 22).

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