U.S. to Step Up Arms Disposal

Pentagon officials plan to offer bonuses to contractors and Army officials to speed destruction of U.S. chemical weapons, following disclosure of major cost overruns and lengthy delays.

Edward C. Aldrich Jr., undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, confirmed Tuesday that the cost of destroying U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles has risen by about $9 billion to $24 billion. The work will not be completed until well past an international treaty deadline of 2007, he said. Officials are now predicting disposal will extend to at least 2011.

The Times reported the delays and overruns Saturday, after eight U.S. chemical weapons sites, where millions of rockets, bombs and mines are stored, were put on high alert following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Army troops were deployed a few days later to assist with security.

Aldrich’s remarks Tuesday were the first official confirmation of the overruns and slipping timetable.

The stockpiles are supposed to be destroyed under a treaty that calls for an end to the production, deployment and stockpiling of chemical weapons.

The new projection “includes some delays, it includes some cost increases, which are unfortunate, but these are the facts as we presented them,” Aldrich said after emerging from a meeting with top elected officials from Alabama, where a weapons incinerator is a few months from going on line.

The meeting focused on long-standing concerns about emergency preparations in the event of an accident in Anniston, Ala., where the $1-billion incinerator is nearing completion. Aldrich met with Sens. Richard C. Shelby and Jeff Sessions, both Alabama Republicans; Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.), whose district includes Anniston; and Gov. Don Siegelman, who participated by phone. Aldrich pledged to address a list of demands to beef up emergency preparedness before the plant goes on line.

A Demand for Hoods for Those Near Incinerator

Among the demands are additional sirens, tone-alert radios, protection of hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities, and an emergency response plan that would protect all residents likely to be affected by a chemical release. Also under consideration are protective hoods for those near the incinerator who would need to take shelter in their homes.

Aldrich said he favors the Army’s proposal to reward contractors with financial incentives if they can beat targets and costs without compromising safety or the environment. He expressed his support in a Sept. 26 memo obtained by The Times and in his remarks Tuesday.

An aide said Army officials in charge of weapons destruction would also be eligible for such bonuses. However, details of the incentives plan have yet to be worked out, officials said.

In his memo, Aldrich said the Army will submit for his review a specific incentives proposal, which could be implemented by next fiscal year.

The plan is likely to draw scrutiny from Congress and opposition from local watchdog groups, who would see such incentives as an invitation to contractors to compromise safety through shortcuts. Currently, safety and environmental protection are the sole official goals of the program.

Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a leading critic, blasted the plan to offer financial incentives.

But the Aldrich memo said such a program could lower the time and costs “while maintaining the paramount importance of the safety of the work force, the surrounding citizens and the environment.”

As recently as April, senior Army officials had told Congress that they were on schedule to complete the destruction of the weapons for about $15 billion by 2007.

Under the new schedule approved by Aldrich, weapons disposal is expected to continue until 2008 at two sites: Tooele, Utah, and Aberdeen, Md. It will extend into 2010 at two others--Pine Bluff, Ark., and Newport, Ind.--and will not be completed until 2011 at chemical depots in Anniston and Umatilla, Ore.

At the other two sites--Pueblo, Colo., and Blue Grass, Ky.--a disposal method will not be chosen until 2002, and there are no estimated dates for completion.

23% of Original Stockpile Destroyed

The Army has destroyed 23% of the original chemical weapons stockpile of 31,496 tons, including munitions and bulk quantities of the nerve agents sarin and VX and mustard blistering agents. This includes about 5,000 tons that the Army has burned at its incinerator at the Utah site, which has the largest of the weapons stockpiles.

Additional incinerators are under construction at the Oregon and Arkansas sites, while chemical neutralization will be used to treat more than 2,800 tons of bulk liquids at the depots in Indiana and Maryland.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Eli Henderson, a county commissioner in Anniston, accused the Army of playing “a shell game” by giving misleading estimates of how long it will take to destroy the weapons.

But Larry Clucas, city administrator for Umatilla, near the site of another new incinerator, said he did not think people will be unduly alarmed by the delay.

“Most of the people locally here would just like to have it gone,” Clucas said. “But as far as a reasonable delay to make sure everything is going to be incinerated properly, we don’t have any concern about that.”