LEXINGTON, Ky.—An Army official overseeing the disposal of chemical weapons in Kentucky said the operation is again running behind schedule and now may not even begin until 2021—four years after a deadline Congress set for completion.
Neutralization of chemical weapons at a site in Pueblo, Colo., is also behind schedule.
Kevin Flamm, manager of Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program, said Tuesday another delay is necessary due partly to increased construction costs and a redesign of a building at Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond where the deadly Cold War-era munitions are to be neutralized and destroyed.
A year ago, Congress approved a law sponsored by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., setting a 2017 deadline to dispose of all chemical weapons stockpiles nationwide. The Pentagon’s blueprint for sites in Kentucky and Colorado, which will use neutralization rather than incineration as a destruction method, had always lagged behind that timetable with projections calling for operations to start around 2017 rather than conclude then.
In a review sent earlier this month to the Pentagon, Flamm projected Pueblo is now running two years behind even the Pentagon’s own estimate, and Richmond is four years behind.
“You can only have so many angels dancing on the head of a pin,” Flamm said. “In good faith, I couldn’t say we could achieve that date.”
Craig Williams, director of the Richmond-based watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, says the Pentagon would be breaking a federal law if it tries to push back the timeframe. He says it still hasn’t provided a blueprint to correspond with the 2017 deadline set by Congress.
“I’m fairly optimistic the Pentagon is going to see the light and realize this program is not discretionary,” Williams said. “This one says, ‘You shall.’ It doesn’t say, ‘You may.’ There’s not a lot of wiggle room.”
Williams said Congress has fully funded the program the last two years and that any delays shouldn’t be blamed on failure to pay the bills. But Flamm said costs have risen significantly due to a greater international demand for some of the materials.
Although Flamm said he doubts Blue Grass can begin before 2021, even with full funding, he expects operations can be finished in Kentucky by 2023 if work is done around the clock. That would keep the completion date in line with the Pentagon’s previous projection, albeit six years behind when Congress had ordered the work be completed. He estimates Colorado could still finish by 2020.
The Richmond stockpile is more complicated than most of the others because it contains VX, GB and mustard agent. An emergency operation is currently under way to destroy three steel containers, one of which leaked sarin last year, but Flamm said that effort had nothing to do with the delays at the larger stockpile.
