Proposed cuts could delay depot incineration

This story was published Wed, Jul 21, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The most serious threat to speedy disposal of deadly chemicals stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot may be a tight-fisted Congress.

Earlier this month, members of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense proposed cutting the Army's Chemical Demilitarization Program by $388 million.

Such a large cut could delay by a year the scheduled 2005 date to destroy 3,717 tons of nerve agent stored near Hermiston with "significant increase in measurable risk to the public," according to the Army.

Also, such a budget cut might mean the United States won't be able to keep its end of the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international agreement that calls for complete destruction of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile by April 2007.

"Those cuts put the treaty at risk," said Ted Prociv, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for chemical demilitarization. "These cuts are very serious. If they go through, it could be real bad and we're in for major trouble."

Prociv visited Hermiston on Wednesday from Washington, D.C., where he heads the independent oversight program for chemical demilitarization. Prociv was in town with a senior Pentagon official, Lt. Gen. Paul Kern, who had not previously visited the Umatilla site where the Army wants to build an incinerator to destroy the chemicals.

Though appearing relaxed in a striped polo shirt while sipping coffee with area leaders at the Army's Outreach Office, Prociv spoke seriously of the increased safety risk of storing the aging chemical weapons, already stockpiled for 40 years.

The Army estimates that in a worst-case scenario, continued storage of the deteriorating chemical stockpile could result in the death of more than 10,000 people within a 62-mile radius of the Umatilla depot.

As for breaking the deadline of the chemical weapons treaty, the Army could ask for a five-year extension, Prociv said. But such a request would be "like beating the devil."

"It's not a good thing for the country," Prociv said. "Here we are picking on other countries for not destroying their weapons fast enough, and then we don't meet the deadline. And we're the high-tech leader of the world."

The House subcommittee proposed the $388 million budget cut when members caught wind of an internal memo written by a defense comptroller claiming a "pot of gold" was hidden inside the Army's chemical demilitarization budget. Also, a separate Senate appropriations report suggested the program had more than $200 million in unspent funds at the end of fiscal year 1998, Prociv said.

But Prociv said Wednesday that the pot-of-gold allegations had been debunked by an intensive investigation by several agencies, including the government's General Accounting Office.

Kathryn O'Meara-Shaw, a member of the Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission, said after visiting with Prociv on Wednesday that she believed him. "I feel confident that the Army is doing the best with the funds they have," she said.

Prociv had speculated House members might have proposed cuts in the chemical demilitarization budget because they want to spend $10.5 billion on "other things," such as on salary increases and ammunition.

"We've got the highest funded budget this year at $1.4 billion, ... so we have our heads sticking up out of that," Prociv said.

As the budget talks proceed through the summer, Prociv said there could be a compromise, with House members seeking a $150 million cut to the entire chemical demilitarization program, of which Umatilla is a small part, instead of the proposed $388 million.

Partners in the Umatilla incinerator project have already made contingency plans for budget cuts and what those cuts might do to the schedule for destroying the chemicals. Budget cuts would not affect the project's construction. The $604 million incinerator is due to be completed by February 2001.

None of the current contingency scenarios involves a cut the size of $150 million.

Raj Malhotra, project manager for chemical demilitarization at the Umatilla depot, said Wednesday that should his budget suffer a $5 million cut for the coming fiscal year, then burning the chemicals would be delayed by about six months.

A $10 million budget cut would mean a nine-month slippage, Malhotra said.

"We just keep marching along with our current schedule and hope that all the money comes through," Malhotra said.

He said he hopes the budget for the upcoming fiscal year - which begins in October - is finished soon so the contractor, Raytheon Demilitarization Corp., can start a hiring freeze as opposed to the possible scenario of sending Raytheon workers to the unemployment lines.

"The Army does not like to lay off people. That's the last thing we want to do," Malhotra said. "It sends the wrong signal, and we don't want to do it."

 

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