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Costs Increase at Indiana VX Disposal Facility
The daily cost of operating the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Indiana is estimated at $300,000 — a $50,000 per day increase since the U.S. Army reported on facility expenses a year ago, the Terre Haute, Ind., Tribune-Star reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 17). The latest figure is an estimate from June 4 through Aug. 4 for facility and laboratory operations, program management, staffing and other costs, according Army project site manager Jeff Brubaker. In addition to the $300,000, the cost of running the depot’s stockpile storage operations is slightly more than $60,000 per day, Brubaker said. The Army is preparing to neutralize 1,269 tons of VX nerve agent at the Newport facility. The Army is working to destroy the munitions stored at Newport and seven other sites to meet its obligation to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. Although U.S. officials claim to have costs and destruction schedules under control, Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group of Kentucky said there have been cost overruns and work delays at every site. “The program is $22 billion over budget and at least 17 years behind schedule,” Williams said. Army Chemical Materials Agency spokeswoman Marilyn Daughdrill confirmed Williams’ numbers. Cost estimates for the program were established in 1985 when “Congress told us to destroy the stockpile by 2004,” she said. “We were extraordinarily optimistic” (Patricia Pastore, Tribune-Star, Sept. 23).
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