|
When the Army proposed closing most of Dugway Proving Ground this
year, a Pentagon review group tried to reverse the decision, saying it
would hurt America's ability to conduct tests of defenses against
chemical and germ warfare.
But Army officials convinced it otherwise by promising that open-air
tests of chemical and germ warfare simulants will continue there for
the foreseeable future, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment
Commission was told Tuesday.
That came as commissioners asked why Dugway was removed from closure
lists two years ago by former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney because of
its "unique capabilities to conduct chemical or biological testing"
but was included this year.
When asked what changed in the two years between the different
conclusions, Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr. said, "I think we're
smarter today than we were then."
Commissioners also said they learned that the Pentagon's Test and
Evaluations Joint Services Group had recommended reversing the
proposal to close Dugway - and commissioners asked how the Army
eventually persuaded it to endorse the proposal instead.
"What we told them was we are going to continue open-air simulant
testing there," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan.
"We're going to continue that, but we can get some of the other
activities out of there."
He said a presentation convinced the review group that the military
will not lose the use of the huge test ranges at the Rhode
Island-sized Dugway base but that it could save money by transferring
laboratory work to Maryland and smoke and obscurant missions to
Arizona.
Meanwhile, the Army is negotiating with Utah to take over Dugway's
English Village residential area and some of its ranges for training
of the Utah National Guard.
Of note, open-air testing at Dugway has been its most controversial
mission over the years - and the one that is proposed to remain.
While the Army says it no longer conducts tests with actual chemical
or germ weapons - which it did in the past - it conducts tests with
simulants that some scientists and watchdog groups have also charged
are dangerous.
Some simulants are germs or chemicals believed to be safe - but
similar claims about other simulants may have been false, and the Army
quit using them after watchdog groups worried they could sicken people
who are ill or elderly, or infants.
The Pentagon estimates that cutbacks at Dugway could cause the loss of
1,096 Defense Department jobs there and indirectly cause the loss of
another 619 private-industry jobs in Tooele County from contractors
and suppliers.
The Pentagon also has estimated that losses from proposed cutbacks at
Dugway and the Utah Test and Training Range, as well as the already
ordered closure of Tooele Army Depot's North Area, could destroy up to
36.6 percent of all jobs in Tooele County - the worst such loss of any
community in the nation. |
