Chemical weapons depots slated for closure

The Umatilla, Deseret and Newport chemical weapons depots are slated for closure as part of the U.S. Defense Department's cost-cutting efforts, the Pentagon announced last week.

The bases are set to close once their stockpiles of chemical agents are eliminated, the Pentagon said in a justification document released Friday. Work is scheduled be finished at Deseret and Newport in 2008 and at Umatilla in 2011.

The closings are part of larger round of base consolidations, restructurings and closings that the Pentagon estimates will save $49 billion over two decades, according to Michael Wynne, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Umatilla, in Oregon, is destroying weapons filled with the nerve agent sarin. The Pentagon estimates that closing the base would yield a 20-year savings of $681.1 million and result in the loss of 900 jobs in the area.

Closing the Deseret depot in Utah, which is destroying mustard gas, would lead to savings of $356.4 million over two decades and cost the area almost 400 jobs, according to Defense Department estimates.

Destruction of the VX nerve agent is set to be completed at Indiana's Newport depot in 2008. The Pentagon estimates 20-year savings at $436.2 million and a loss of more than 800 jobs.

News of the closings was not surprising.

"We always knew we would close," Col. Raymond Van Pelt, commander of the Deseret facility, told the Associated Press. "This is good news."

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who represents Umatilla's home district, also said the closing is welcome.

"As near as I can tell, it's where we wanted to end up - finish the mission and close the base," Walden told The Oregonian.

The Pentagon also plans to shift its Medical and Biological Defense Research branch offices from Water Reed Memorial Hospital, which is marked for closing, to Fort Detrick in Maryland.

The base now houses the main offices of the Army Medical Chemical and Biological Defense Research Program and the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Both programs study new countermeasures for weapons of mass destruction.

The shift is aimed at improving communication between the Defense Department and the Food and Drug Administration to develop protocol for the approval of biological and chemical countermeasures, according to the Pentagon's base closing justification document.

The Pentagon also hopes the move would: improve chemical and biological weapons countermeasures research and development; allow for the integration of programs, preventing redundancy; make the most of "critical professional personnel with expertise in medical product development and acquisition;" and allow for better coordination with Fort Detrick offices, according to the justification document.

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota is also scheduled to close. The base houses 24 B-1 aircraft, originally designed to deliver nuclear payloads.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. said the closing the base would hurt national readiness and vowed to fight for it to remain open.

"Our fight to save Ellsworth isn't over. I plan to work with the Ellsworth Task Force - and the entire South Dakota congressional delegation - to demonstrate to the members of the BRAC [Base Realignment and Closure] Commission that closing Ellsworth is wrong for our national defense," Johnson said in a press release. "While we must be realistic about the likelihood of removing the base from the closure list by the BRAC Commission, it is worth the effort to save - for South Dakota and our national defense."