U.S. Chemical Weapons Disposal Set to Finish in 2023

The United States is now not expected to completely eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile until 2023, more than a decade beyond what is allowed by an international treaty, USA Today reported (see GSN, Nov. 15).

The Chemical Weapons Convention calls for member nations to dispose of their arsenals no later than 2012.  Washington earlier this year indicated that disposal of nearly 30,000 metric tons of chemical agent would not be finished before 2017. 

The latest schedule is detailed in documents obtained by the newspaper.

There are a number of reasons for the delays, according to Defense Department spokesman Chris Isleib.  These include technological difficulties in construction of disposal facilities, regulatory hurdles that must be overcome, and safety and security requirements that must be met.

“Destroying these weapons safely is not a fast or simple process,” Isleib told USA Today.

Two U.S. disposal plants have finished their work and five are currently operating.  Construction and operations at the last two planned facilities would be slowed under the Pentagon plan.  Disposal of weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado would finish in 2020, followed three years later by work at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused the Defense Department of “again backsliding on its commitment.”

The new schedule is “simply unacceptable,” he said in a statement.  “They would subject the people living near (stockpiles) to the dangers of chemical weapons well into the 2020s.”

The estimated cost for complete weapons disposal has increased from $2 billion in 1986 to $32 billion today (Peter Eisler, USA Today, Nov. 21).

The new schedule would increase the cost of weapons disposal at the Pueblo Chemical Depot by $600 million, to $3.2 billion, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported today (see GSN, Oct. 12).

Elimination of 2,600 tons of mustard agent at Pueblo previously was expected to end in 2014.  “The DOD’s mismanagement of the chemical weapons destruction program” is to blame for the revised schedule, said Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.).

The Pentagon is considering a plan to save $150 million by shipping waste created by chemical neutralization of weapons agent to another site for final processing, the Gazette reported.  That is likely to meet stiff opposition, said John Klomp, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Commission.

“First, you’re shipping what is still a toxic waste over the road,” he said.  “Second, there are political boundaries that may not allow you to ship through their area, and third, and most importantly, there could be litigation which could hold up the project for a long period of time.  We don’t want this project to go back on hold” (Pam Zubeck, The Gazette, Nov. 21).

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