The U.S. Defense Department formally announced yesterday that it will not meet a treaty deadline to destroy 45 percent of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile by April 29, 2004 (see GSN, May 7). 

As a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the United States is committed to destroying its stockpile in specific stages, leading to complete destruction by 2007.  The treaty allows parties, however, to request an extension if necessary.

Pentagon officials plan to ask the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to push the 45-percent deadline back to December 2007, according to a Defense Department release. 

As for meeting the final deadline, the release says the United States “has been trying to complete destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile in order to meet the CWC’s final 2007 deadline,” but “there have been significant obstacles.”

The United States has so far destroyed about 23 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile.

The Pentagon release says the obstacles to destruction faced so far include “political and operational issues that forced operational shutdowns or postponed start-up dates.”

Specifically, the Pentagon cited an eight-month investigation at the Tooele Chemical Destruction Facility in Utah, caused by incident in which a worker was exposed to chemical agent (Defense Department release, Sept. 3).

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