RICHMOND, Ky.—Army officials want to use explosives to eliminate some of the chemical weapons stockpiled in Kentucky and Colorado, a change they say could improve safety and prevent lags in the nation’s weapons destruction schedule.
Kevin Flamm, manager of the Army’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program, met Tuesday with community leaders in Richmond to explain the changes being considered for operations at Blue Grass Army Depot. He scheduled a similar meeting Wednesday in Pueblo, Colo.
At issue is the use of explosive technologies to eliminate some of the most troublesome mustard-filled projectiles—15,000 of which are stored in Richmond. Although there are several devices under consideration, including some mounted on trailers, they all rely in part on an explosive charge to eliminate or contain the weapons.
“We don’t view these as replacing our destruction capabilities, but rather, as augmenting them—another tool in our tool kit,” Flamm said.
The Army says the technique isn’t considered incineration. The two states are using a chemical neutralization process rather than incinerators for destroying their stockpiles to comply with an international treaty. Under the current schedule, Kentucky would be the last weapons site to begin operations in 2018 and the last to finish in 2021.
Members of the Chemical Destruction Citizen Advisory Board, which heard the plan Tuesday, expressed few concerns about the method of using explosives for mustard projectiles that aren’t able to be destroyed by neutralization. However, they did express fears the mission could be expanded to other weapons without thorough testing.
Craig Williams, director of the watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, complained the community wasn’t given sufficient notice. Flamm needs to provide a final recommendation to the Pentagon next week.
“We certainly would have appreciated having a little more time to deal with this,” Williams said.
Flamm said he wasn’t “trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes” on the timing but had concluded explosives were the best way to eliminate the trickiest mustard weapons should anything go wrong. The only alternative, he said, is to send in workers to remove the problematic munitions.
An added benefit to the project, Flamm said, is it will allow the nation to fill scheduling gaps when no stockpile was actively destroying its weapons, helping to underscore its commitment to an international treaty. Regardless, the country will miss the treaty’s 2012 completion deadline.
This isn’t the first time the Army has used a different method than the planned neutralization to destroy troublesome weapons in Kentucky. A nerve agent leak in 2007 sparked an emergency operation to remove three containers early.
