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More State and Federal Officials Express Opposition to Pentagon Study of Moving Chemical Weapons
Utah’s governor and state lawmakers pledged yesterday to block any effort to ship chemical weapons from U.S. depots with no disposal facilities to operating incinerators such as the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in their state, the Salt Lake Tribune reported (see GSN, Jan. 27). “There is no way this governor will ever support transporting such toxic chemical weapons into Utah,” Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. said in a statement. “We will utilize all means to prevent any quantity of mustard gas [from the Pueblo, Colo., stockpile] from moving into the state of Utah.” Members of Utah’s congressional delegation and other lawmakers yesterday also objected to potential chemical weapons relocation. U.S. Senator Bob Bennett (R) yesterday agreed to co-sponsor legislation introduced Wednesday by Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) that would prohibit the U.S. Defense Department from even studying moving the weapons. Representative Jim Matheson (D) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday opposing any relocation effort. “This will not happen so long as I am a U.S. senator,” said Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), one of five senators who have already signed on to co-sponsor Allard’s bill. “Moving 60-year-old stockpiles of leaking mustard agent is not a solution to a budget problem, it is a recipe for disaster” (Robert Gehrke, Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 28). The Army Chemical Materials Agency announced today that it has formed its evaluation team to consider munitions relocation and other alternatives aimed at ensuring the United States meets the 2012 deadline to destroy all chemical weapons. The team would be led by Kevin Duvall, acting director of the CMA Cooperative Threat Reduction Support Directorate, and would include representatives from various CMA, Army and Defense Department offices. “The technical assessment is in an early stage. It is too early to speculate what will be included in the assessment,” CMA Director Michael Parker said in a press release. “We will meet the directive given us. … Our mission at CMA is to safely store and dispose of these obsolete weapons while fulfilling the imperative of national defense. Safety of our workers, our communities and our environment will not be compromised” (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Jan. 2).
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