Colorado Sues Department of Defense in Federal Court
Seeking 2017 Deadline for Chemical Weapons Destruction in
Pueblo
9/2/2008 - DENVER - The Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment today filed suit in U.S.
District Court requesting the court require the U.S.
Department of Defense, its Assembled Chemical Weapons
Assessment Program and the Department of the Army to treat
and destroy chemical weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical
Depot by Dec. 31, 2017. The lawsuit comes after the
respondents notified the state of their intention to appeal
an Administrative Order issued by the state on June 17,
2008.
The lawsuit requests the court grant the same remedies as
were indicated in the order. The state’s order called for
the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile by Dec.
31, 2017, four years earlier than the Department of
Defense’s current proposed date of Dec. 31, 2021. The order
also required that secondary waste currently stored under a
separate permit be treated and destroyed by the same date of
Dec. 31, 2017. Gary Baughman, director of the Hazardous
Materials and Waste Management Division at the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment, said, “Given
recurring delays by the Department of Defense for completing
treatment and destruction of these wastes, the division is
seeking an enforceable schedule for their timely treatment.
We believe the 2017 deadline is more than reasonable to
complete treatment and destruction of the chemical weapons.”
The order and the lawsuit both require the military to file
a chemical waste treatment plan within 60 days of the
effective date of the final decision. This plan will
describe the methods to be used to treat and destroy all
hazardous waste weapons and other agent wastes at the Pueblo
Chemical Depot. A chemical waste treatment plan also
requires a complete project schedule depicting the tasks
required for the destruction of the wastes by Dec. 31, 2017.
Some of these tasks then could be designated by the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment as enforceable
milestones in the waste treatment plan. The chemical weapons
contain mustard agent, an acutely toxic hazardous waste
causing severe skin and lung inflammation, which is known to
cause cancer and birth defects.
Long-term storage of hazardous waste is prohibited under
state hazardous waste regulations, except when additional
quantities of the waste are required to facilitate proper
treatment or when an alternate schedule for its treatment is
in place under a compliance order. According to the
compliance order, the mustard agent-filled weapons are not
being stored for the purpose of accumulating adequate
quantities for appropriate treatment, as the Pueblo Chemical
Depot currently stores hundreds of thousands of waste
chemical weapons at the site.
In 2002, the Department of Defense decided to destroy
weapons at the Pueblo Depot by chemically neutralizing the
mustard agent and then biologically treating the resulting
waste. A contractor was selected to design and build the
facility, the first phase of Pueblo Chemical
Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant permitting was completed, and
construction of the plant was scheduled to begin. Under the
initial design and operating plans for the facility,
destruction of the chemical weapons would have been
completed by April 29, 2012.
However, in the fall of 2004 the Department of Defense
terminated the design and construction plans for the
facility and ordered that the facility be redesigned to meet
a lower cost estimate. The contractor subsequently
redesigned the facility to the lower cost estimate in 2005
and provided the Department of Defense with an
implementation schedule to complete weapons destruction in
nine years. Despite previous security and safety concerns
related to long-term storage of the weapons in Pueblo, the
Department of Defense lengthened the time for completing
weapons destruction in order to cut costs. Current
Department of Defense-generated treatment schedules for
destruction of the mustard weapons at the Pueblo Chemical
Depot extend out as far as 2021. State health department
representatives have been working with the Army and Defense
Department to bring storage of the chemical weapons in the
stockpile into compliance with the regulations. The parties
also have been working with the Assembled Chemical Weapons
Alternatives Program to design, construct and permit the
Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, where the
chemical weapons will be treated.
For more information about the Pueblo Chemical Depot
chemical weapons destruction, please see the Web site at
www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/pcd/index.htm. |
