Weapons of Mass Destruction
U.S. Boosts Funding for Last Two CW Disposal Sites
Global Security Newswire. Nov 6, 2008. By Chris Schneidmiller
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department has received its highest-ever budget for preparing two chemical weapons disposal sites that hold the key to meeting the congressional demand to eliminate the entire U.S. stockpile by 2017.
The $427.5 million provided to the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program for fiscal 2009 is a step in the right direction toward providing the money that will be needed to meet the deadline, one longtime observer said.
“We see the … budget request as a positive indication [against] the potential to shy away from what would be necessary to meet the shortened schedule; the heartburn that they would suffer would not be as great,” said Craig Williams, head of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.
Funding for the agency this year is up from $407.1 million in fiscal 2008 and $349.2 million in fiscal 2007.
The disposal program, when first envisioned in 1985, was expected to be finished within a decade and cost roughly $1.8 billion. Instead, it remains a going concern that is set to require roughly $36 billion.
As long as the lethal materials remain in existence, they present a potential danger to nearby communities and an attractive target for terrorists looking for a shortcut to a new capability. Any stockpiles left after April 2012 would also violate the deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which requires full destruction of the U.S. chemical arsenal.
All operations to date have been handled at seven sites by the Army Chemical Materials Agency. It received the bulk of the more than $1.6 billion appropriated for weapons destruction operations in the budget year that began Oct. 1.
The Army is not focused on meeting the congressional directive, but rather the deadline set by the international treaty.
Three storage depots have already finished off their stockpiles. The latest disposal schedule, dating from April 2006, has the Army completing operations between 2015 and 2017 at incinerators in Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon and Utah. “We’re moving these schedules to the left,” with the goal being 2012, said CMA spokesman Greg Mahall.
Paul Walker, security and sustainability program head for Global Green USA, estimated that the Army’s side of chemical weapons elimination is more likely to be finished in 2013 to 2014.