The U.S. House of Representatives has approved $547 million in fiscal 2010 funding for efforts to finish off destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, the private Chemical Weapons Working Group said Friday (see GSN, July 22).
The funds, included in a defense appropriations bill, matched the amount sought by the Defense Department for demilitarization efforts at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. The Pentagon is still building disposal plants at the two installations, which would be the final two U.S. sites to complete elimination of their chemical holdings.
The funding, if agreed to by the Senate, would be a significant increase from previous years for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, which is managing the demilitarization program for Blue Grass and Pueblo. It would allow work at both sites to finish years ahead of current estimates, with disposal operations finishing in 2017 in Colorado and in 2021 in Kentucky.
The Chemical Weapons Convention requires the United States to finish off its arsenal of banned warfare materials and munitions by April 2012. Congress has demanded that operations be completed by the end of 2017 (Chemical Weapons Working Group release, July 31).