WASHINGTON (November 15, 2007) – Congressman Chandler announced today that the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) in Richmond, Kentucky will receive $2.4 million in funding from the Department of the Army for the continued development of a Supercritical Water Oxidation System to dispose of conventional weapons.

The appropriation of $2.4 million for the Blue Grass Army Depot was signed into law by the President on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 as part of the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.

“The safety of employees and the community are vital,” said Congressman Ben Chandler.  “I am pleased that these funds are now available to help the Depot safely dispose of outdated conventional weapons.”

The Supercritical Water Oxidation System will provide BGAD with an environmentally-friendly way to dispose of obsolete munitions currently stored at the site.  Oxidation in supercritical water mineralizes wastes into safe byproducts, therefore eliminating dangerous substances.  When the waste is cooled, the gases separate from the liquids and solids, and the remaining waste can be disposed of safely.

This advanced system will minimize the need for more dangerous and environmentally-harmful open burn and open detonation processes, allowing BGAD to better comply with the Department of Defense’s goal of minimizing dangerous weapons disposal procedures.  Another advantage of the supercritical water oxidation system is that it will, in the future, drastically reduce the noise pollution that is caused by open detonation of conventional weapons.

This earmark comes at a time of intense Congressional involvement in the Depot, particularly surrounding their chemical weapons stockpile.  Earlier this week, Senators McConnell and Bunning and Congressman Chandler sent a letter to Dale Ormond, Acting Director of the Chemical Materials Agency, to raise awareness about a recent report citing the Depot’s “failure to ensure that employees are properly trained to prevent releases of chemical warfare agents to the environment.”  The lawmakers are calling for immediate action from the Chemical Materials Agency to mitigate the situation.

Additionally, the entire Kentucky House delegation recently sent a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee asking them to support an amendment offered by Senator McConnell to the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill to set a 2017 deadline to destroy chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado.

####