|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Colorado Senator Calls for Hearings on Chemical Stockpile Destruction Delay
U.S. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) yesterday called for a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee to examine delays in chemical weapons destruction by the U.S. Army, the Pueblo Chieftain reported (see GSN, Feb. 3). In a letter to committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.), Allard wrote that the 2005 White House budget request for the destruction project “provides insufficient funding for the programs and will most likely result in the United States failing to meet its treaty obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which calls for the complete destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile by 2012” (see GSN, Oct. 31, 2003). The Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado houses a mustard agent stockpile that must be destroyed under the terms of the convention, which the United States ratified in 1997. The White House budget request cut the fiscal 2005 allocation for the depot from more than $150 million to less than $5 million. The Army claims the estimated cost for the project, primarily organized by contractor Bechtel, was too high and has reportedly rejected Bechtel’s suggestions on how the project might be scaled back. Bechtel defended the high cost estimate by citing the Army’s own priorities for faster stockpile destruction in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, April 7).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
