Bill Sets 2017 Deadline for Chem Weapons Disposal

An amendment approved yesterday by the Senate Appropriations Committee requires the U.S. Defense Department to complete disposal of chemical weapons stored in Colorado and Kentucky by the end of 2017, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 12).

The language in a fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill would essentially set 2017 as the end date for complete elimination of the U.S. stockpile of nerve and blister agents.  Depots at Blue Grass, Ky., and Pueblo, Colo., are the only facilities that have yet to begin destruction of chemical munitions.

Chemical neutralization plants have yet to be built at the two sites, which have been delayed by issues including funding and design.  The existing schedule has operations beginning in 2014 at both locations, with weapons disposal ending in 2020 at Pueblo and 2023 at Blue Grass.

Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the United States is required to destroy all covered munitions and agents by 2012.

“Without a firm deadline, DOD will continue to drag its feet,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who sponsored the amendment with Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), said in a press release.

More than 2,600 tons of mustard agent is stored at Pueblo in projectiles and cartridges, AP reported.  There are 532 tons of nerve and blister agents contained in rockets and projectiles at Blue Grass.

The defense bill still has to be approved by the full Senate.  It would increase funding for weapons disposal at the two locations, according to Allard (Associated Press, Sept. 12).

The committee this week also boosted the Bush administration’s $132 million request for work at the two sites by $10 million, the Pueblo, Colo., Chieftain reported.  The money would be used for additional equipment purchases, Allard said (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, Sept. 13).

The Defense Department remains “committed to its responsibility to destroy these outdated weapons safely and efficiently.  Destroying these weapons is not a fast or simple process,” said Pentagon spokesman Chris Isleib (Warren/Abdullah, Lexington Herald-Leader, Sept. 13).

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