NON-STOCKPILE CHEM WEAPONS DISPOSAL

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

"NONSTOCKPILE" CHEM WEAPONS DISPOSAL

 While controversy over the incineration of unitary chemical 
weapons at nine U.S. stockpile sites continues to increase, the 
General Accounting Office (GAO) has highlighted another, 
potentially more costly challenge concerning chemical weapons. In 
"Chemical Weapons Disposal: Plans for Nonstockpile Chemical 
Warfare Materiel Can Be Improved" (December, 1994), GAO warns 
that disposal of these items is currently estimated at $17.7 billion. 
Combined with the estimate for stockpile disposal, now at $11 
billion and rising, the projected cost of chem demil now exceeds the 
estimated cost of hazardous waste cleanup at domestic Defense 
installations.

 The nonstockpile chemical munitions program includes 
relatively simple, well documented problems such as the disposal of 
modern, binary chemical munitions, and the daunting task of 
locating and destroying buried chemical warfare materiel at an 
estimated 215 sites in 33 states. The Army's best estimate for 
destroying buried chemical munitions exceeds $12 billion.

 In an appendix, GAO describes the highly publicized 
investigation and disposal of chemical and conventional weapons in 
Washington, DC's posh Spring Valley neighborhood. Thus far, 9 
rounds of chemical munitions were shipped to the nearby Aberdeen 
Proving Ground, in Maryland, for testing, while 35 rounds were sent 
to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, for storage. Nearly one hundred 
conventional weapons (explosives) from Spring Valley were sent to 
Fort A.P. Hill, in Virginia, for opposition. The Amy Corps of 
Engineers currently estimates that the cleanup of Spring Valley, 
funded through the Defense Environmental Restoration Account as a 
Formerly Used Defense Site, will cost $20.22 million.

 Single copies of GAO reports can be ordered at no charge by 
calling 202/512-6000 or sending a fax to 301/258-4066. The 
document number of this report is GAO/NSIAD-95-55.

Lenny Siegel