Plan B for chem weapons?

Sen. Bob Bennett has effectively stopped the Pentagon from studying whether to move chemical weapons from Pueblo, Colo., to the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele County for destruction. The Senate Appropriations Committee has refused to fund an Army study that could have led to the shipment of mustard-gas stockpiles.

Bennett's language was added to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Bennett is a member. It now goes to the full Senate.

Blocking funding for this study is critical because pressure is mounting in Washington to cut the federal budget. Meanwhile, the United States faces a 2012 deadline under an international treaty to destroy its chemical weapon stockpile. The Pentagon has contemplated moving the aging stockpile of mustard agent at the Pueblo Chemical Depot to its Tooele County facility, which could be cheaper than building a facility to destroy it in Pueblo. It is illegal to transport the weapons, but the Army just wanted to study the issue. That option would be off the table pending congressional approval of the budget, thanks to Bennett.

Utah isn't alone in the fight. Colorado feels much the same. Members of both states' congressional delegations have been working on some means to keep the chemical weapons in Colorado. They sponsored legislation in the House and Senate to block funding of the Army study because of shared concerns about the risks of transporting aging chemical weapons. Utahns, who already feel as though the federal government and other states perceive Utah as the nation's designated waste dump, don't want the responsibility of destroying any more chemical weapons. As Bennett said in a prepared statement, "Utah currently houses and is successfully disposing more than 40 percent of the nation's chemical stockpile. That's more than enough."

Moreover, Coloradans want the jobs that would be created in the construction and operation of a plant to destroy the mustard agent in Pueblo County.

Transporting these weapons carries a variety of risks, among them leaky containers, compromised overpacks and the potential — however slight — that these weapons would fall into the wrong hands. Keeping and destroying the weapons on site would relieve the Pentagon of most of those concerns.

We hope the two states can succeed in blocking this ill-conceived venture. The Pentagon needs to develop a safe and cost-effective means to destroy the mustard agent in Colorado. Keep it out of Utah, a state that has done more than its share.