To put it another way, we see the incinerator as a toxic burden that Utahns have borne grudgingly as part of their patriotic duty. The GOP congressional delegation, by contrast, apparently views it as a continuing business opportunity.

Sure, the $400 million plant has created jobs and state revenues. But given the choice, we believe the state will be happy to be rid of the chemical weapons arsenal that has been stored at Tooele and the destruction process itself. We are incredulous that Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon and Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett would think it's a good idea to import conventional weapons into the state for destruction in the incinerator once the chemical weapons have been disposed of.

Environmentalists have worried since the incinerator was proposed that malfunctions could allow unburned chemical agents to escape up the stack and that highly toxic dioxins would escape even when everything was working properly.

On the other side, the Army and its contractor have insisted since the plant began burning weapons in 1996 that the process has never endangered public health, despite many glitches and shut-downs.

The public is left wondering where the truth lies.

To comply with an international treaty, the United States must destroy all of its chemical weapons by 2012. Tooele once stored about 45 percent of the U.S. chemical arsenal, and it is on track to eliminate those weapons by the treaty deadline.

In 1987, the Army decided to build separate disposal facilities at each of nine locations where the weapons are stored. To save money, the Army has studied the idea of moving mustard agents from Pueblo, Colo., to Utah for destruction. That would be grossly unfair, because Utah already has shouldered more than its share of the risk involved with storing and destroying these weapons.

Though the Army no longer is considering the Pueblo ploy, we can't help but wonder whether it would resurface in exchange for the Utah incinerator being retooled to destroy conventional weapons, as the congressional delegation is proposing.

That sounds like a bad bargain for Utah.