Chemical Weapons

Obstacles to the Army's Plan to Destroy Obsolete U.S. Stockpile Gao ID: NSIAD-90-155 May 24, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP), focusing on its efforts to destroy obsolete chemical weapons.

GAO found that: (1) the Army's 1985 cost estimate for completing on-site disposal has increased from $1.7 billion to over $3.4 billion; (2) the Army would not complete its destruction of the stockpile by 1997, as the law required; (3) the Army believed that more stringent environmental requirements to operate incineration plants, budget cuts, and operational delays at disposal plants hampered its ability to meet the mandated deadline; (4) the disposal program was further hampered by strong citizen opposition in some states and the Army's failure to allow adequate time for obtaining environmental permits; and (5) because of the delays in obtaining required environment permits, most of the $123 million the Army requested in fiscal year (FY) 1991 might not be needed until FY 1992.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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