With its decision this week to use hot water and microbes to destroy mustard agent in artillery shells stored in Colorado, the Army has for the first time chosen to dispose of chemical munitions by a method other than incineration.The 2,600 tons of World War II-era blistering agent stockpiled in Pueblo, Colo., will be added to water and then biologically treated using a new process that produces few emissions, according to a report in the Denver Post Thursday.
Before this decision, which was announced by a Colorado official and has yet to be made public by the Army, neutralization processes had been confined to the destruction of agent stored in bulk containers that are free of explosives.
The Army in the past has said the processes aren't right for the rockets, landmines and artillery shells stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot and other locations because of the time it takes to disassemble the munitions.
How this decision will affect plans to incinerate Bynum's mustard agent, which is encased shells and stored in ton containers, is not clear.
"I don't know that any decision involving the other sites will have an impact on Anniston," said Mike Abrams, spokesman for the incinerator. "We are convinced that we can safely incinerate the weapons in fairly short period of time."
Both the Army and the Department of Defense declined comment Friday.
The mustard weapons will be the last type of munitions to be processed by the Anniston Army Depot incinerator, which is expected to begin testing on nerve agents in September. Nerve agents VX and GB - also called sarin - will be destroyed first because they pose the greatest risk to the community.
Incineration opponents, who have promoted neutralization as a safer, cleaner alternative to the Army's preferred method of destruction, hailed the Colorado decision.
"There is absolutely no justification to further poison this or the other communities that store these weapons," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group.
The Army, on the other hand, has defended the incineration technology, pointing to their operating histories in Utah and at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, however, chemical neutralization has been gathering steam among military officials seeking to reduce the risk from chemical stockpiles that could serve as targets. In January, the Army announced an accelerated neutralization plan for bulk agent stored in Maryland and Indiana. However, the Maryland plan has run into funding problems and could be delayed.
Neutralization has not always been met with open arms. Oregon officials sold on incineration recently expressed wariness about the Army's interest in introducing a similar accelerated program at the depot in Umatilla, where an incinerator is under construction.
Pueblo offers a stark contrast. There, community groups and officials have resisted incineration. Following years of waiting for a decision on the technology, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., announced Wednesday that the Pentagon had committed to the water-neutralization process.
The process employs bacteria used in sewage plants to break down the chemical after it is treated with water. The Pueblo plant will use a modified reverse assembly process to disassemble the munitions.
Once the Army makes its decision public, it will prepare an environmental impact statement for the new technology, according to the Denver Post. A functioning plant will be a few years down the road.
