The beginning of chemical weapons disposal in Colorado and Kentucky might be delayed by years, the Pueblo Chieftain reported today (see GSN, Nov. 6).
(Nov. 20) -
A weapons storage igloo at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, where chemical-weapon destruction could be put off until 2021 (Kentucky Emergency Management Division photo).
The "begin-operations" date for the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado has been pushed back from January 2015 to December 2016, while work at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky would begin in 2021, almost four years later than anticipated.
A number of factors forced the schedule change, including increasing costs for the disposal sites, heightened materials needs, the redesign of the Blue Grass disposal plant, and funding that does not provide sufficient support for the higher costs, said Kathy DeWeese, spokeswoman for the Defense Department's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program.
“Although the current estimates for the begin operations milestone for both the Blue Grass and Pueblo facilities have slipped, we continue to pursue opportunities to mitigate any further schedule breaches in the overall program,” she said. “We believe that the end-operations and complete-closure milestones can be achieved, and are committed to working with (the Defense Department) to ensure such success.”
The agency expects to issue a report in December addressing the price tag for the new schedule and options for completing operations on the existing schedule, which calls for weapons disposal to end in 2020 at Pueblo and in 2023 at Blue Grass.
Congress has demanded that all U.S. chemical weapons be eliminated by 2017 and could provide additional money to ensure the goal is met. The Chemical Weapons Convention requires the United States to finish off its stockpile of banned warfare materials by April 2012; U.S. officials have acknowledged that they cannot meet that deadline.
U.S. chemical weapons were stored at nine sites, and destruction activities have begun or have been finished at seven of those sites (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, Nov. 20).