The Blue Grass Army Depot in central Kentucky is under new leadership. Colonel Brett Ayvazian took over the post from Colonel Stephen Dorris earlier this week. He will be overseeing the facility during the final chemical demilitarization operations conducted by the Bluegrass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant.
What happens next for the Depot has some people in the area concerned. William Ritter is the public affairs officer for the Depot. He said the chemical weapons demilitarization is only a fraction of what they do.
“Our primary mission is receiving, storing, and shipping out around the globe, around the country, munitions, conventional munitions. That is not going to change, we will not have any downswing in that mission requirement.”
Ritter said they are making plans for when the Bluegrass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant wraps up operations.
“We are going to start looking for a new tenant to take the place of the Bluegrass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant because, right now they are a revenue generating facility for us and we need to look to replace it with some sort of other military related industry.”
The revenue it creates is needed because the Blue Grass Army Depot operations use no taxpayer dollars. It must generate money from selling goods and services to pay for its expenses. The disposal of chemical weapons is scheduled to wrap up next year.
