Elimination of chemical weapons stockpile brings end of federal emergency money

TOOELE — The elimination of Utah's chemical weapons stockpile will also mean the elimination of millions of dollars in federal funding to the state that helped pay for sophisticated emergency command centers, equipment and training for thousands of front-line responders.

The destruction of the last two-ton bulk containers of the deadly blister agent Lewisite finished the incineration and decontamination process Saturday at Tooele County's Deseret Chemical Depot.

With that process comes the destruction of the world's largest stockpile of chemical weapons — some 13,617 tons of the material manufactured for war but never used.

Seven years before the depot started destruction of the stockpile in 1996, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army began sending federal dollars to Utah to help carve out emergency response efforts sufficient to counter the threat posed by handling the deadly chemicals.

Through the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, $124 million in funding has come to Utah since 1989. Other host states of chemical stockpiles — such as Washington, Alabama and Maryland — received their share of CSEPP funds as well to help locals mount a unified response in case of a chemical release.

"The federal government realized that if you are going to bring something so horrible to a community, you have to make sure your community is prepared to respond if something goes wrong," said the state's emergency management spokesman, Joe Dougherty.

"This is one of those areas where you see the federal government has done things exactly as they should have and met its obligations."

The money helped pay for the construction of Tooele County's state-of-the-art emergency management building that features self-contained bunkers with enough water, air and sewer capacity to last up to 10 days.

"This money has benefited Tooele County immensely over the past 23 years. It has provided many benefits beyond our Emergency Operations Center," said Wade Mathews, the program's spokesman.

An estimated $75 million of Utah's total share of CSEPP money was funneled to Tooele County, which saw its already scarce resources strained at the prospect of organizing and paying for a response appropriate for a chemical weapons event.