Pentagon documents show President Bush plans to cut spending for the chemical weapons disposal program. As a result, the Defense Department is searching for ways to minimize risk and still destroy the chemical agents by the 2012 deadline imposed by an international treaty.
In a directive signed last month, Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Michael Wynne ordered the Army and the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program to study the options, including relocation, and report to him by March.
Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said it is premature to speculate on which weapons might be moved to specific sites. But it stands to reason that the study would look at moving weapons from locations where weapons disposal has not begun to places where it has, she said.
Opponents say the potential for an accident or terrorist attack during the shipments make it an unacceptable proposal.
"We would definitely fight it every step of the way," said Jason Groenewold, spokesman for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. "It really completely breaks the promise we were given as a state that we wouldn't become the dumping ground for the nation's chemical weapons stockpile."
Groenewold said he would hope the Utah congressional delegation would try to "put out this brush fire before it grows."
In order to move the chemical stockpiles, Congress would have to rescind a federal law banning the transportation of the agents.
Rep. Rob Bishop, whose district includes the Tooele facilities, said there is likely no cause for alarm. He said given the Pentagon's efforts to cut costs, many options are being considered, but they are in the early stages.
In its original environmental impact statement in 1988, the Army looked at consolidating the weapons stockpiles in Utah and Alabama, but found that moving the aging agents and munitions was riskier than leaving them where they were and building plants to dispose of them.
"On a practical level, what are these people thinking?" said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, which released the Pentagon memos. Re-opening the issue now is a cost-driven decision that goes against promises the Army made to communities and the warnings about the need for quick disposal.
It also fails to consider the certain opposition from state and local officials. Williams said the Tennessee governor's office had already contacted him, concerned about the possibility of weapons from the stockpile in Kentucky moving through his state.
The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility began incinerating chemical weapons in 1996. So far, it has disposed of about half of the weapons stockpile stored at nearby Deseret Chemical Depot. Deseret originally was home to 45 percent of the nation's entire chemical weapons stockpile.
Colorado's Pueblo Chemical Depot is the stockpile nearest to Utah, housing large containers of World War II-era mustard agent. An agent neutralization facility is in the planning stages at Pueblo, but it is unclear when it will be finished.
Moving the mustard agent from Pueblo to Tooele would mean the agent would have to be shipped about 730 miles. It could be shipped most safely in the winter, when the agent hardens and is inert. The 1988 study said rail lines were the safest mode of transportation.
Weapons also also being destroyed at sites in Maryland, Alabama and Oregon. Facilities in Arkansas and Indiana are scheduled to begin disposal later this year.
