Like storm clouds gathering on the horizon, more indications are piling up that chemical weapons stored in Colorado will be incinerated in Utah.

Budget plans are on hold for building a chemical arms destruction facility to destroy the 2,600 tons of mustard agent stored in Pueblo, Colo. At the same time, the U.S. Army has said it is studying the possibility of moving weapons.

The nearest stockpile where a destruction plant is operating is near Stockton in Utah's Tooele County. If the Pueblo arms were moved, the obvious destination would be the Army's incinerator there.

According to a statement posted at the Web site for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, "stage one construction" for the plant has been suspended. That stage includes $50 million for site preparation such as roads, fencing, earthwork and temporary buildings.

Funding requests for the overall chemical demilitarization project have been cut by millions of dollars in the new federal budget.

Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget has branded the program "ineffective."

The Colorado congressional delegation wants the arms at Pueblo to be destroyed there, as envisioned in the law setting up destruction of the arms, said Nayyera Haq, spokeswoman for Rep. John T. Salazar, D-Colo. His district includes Pueblo.

"It's illegal right now to transport any chemical weapons across state lines, and to consider that or consider studying that is just not in the best interest of homeland security," she said. That is especially true "since these chemical weapons have been sitting there for years, deteriorating," she said.

One of Salazar's concerns is the estimated 1,000 jobs a destruction plant would bring to Pueblo, Haq said. These would not materialize if the arms were shipped to Utah.

No chemical destruction facility has been built at Pueblo, and Haq said no money is designated for construction of one there in fiscal year 2006.

Money earmarked for the overall demilitarization project, which involves stockpiles in eight states, is dropping.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, the 2006 budget projection for chemical weapons demilitarization is pegged at about $1.4 billion, down $48 million from the fiscal year 2005 estimate. The 2006 budget would be $206 million less than actual expenditures during 2004.

OMB researchers officially labeled the program ineffective. Not completed were these actions that the Department of Defense had undertaken, according to OMB:

• Approval of a destruction process and proceeding with planning for the chemical weapons stockpile at Blue Grass, Ky., as well as working with "community groups at all sites to ensure that safety concerns are met."
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