The United States has maintained a stockpile of chemical
weapons to serve as a deterrent against the use of similar
weapons by other countries for more than 50 years.
During the 50's and 60's, as these weapons became
obsolete, the acceptable method of disposal was burial at sea,
or open-pit burning. In
1970, these methods were considered environmentally unsafe,
and were halted. During the 70's, the Army constructed
facilities at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, CO and Tooele, UT to
test both incineration and neutralization technologies as
possible technologies to destroy chemical weapons.
In 1981, the Army was named the Defense Single Item
Manager for all ammunition, to include chemical weapons.
This included the responsibility for production,
storage, maintenance and destruction.
Based on test results at Rocky Mountain Arsenal and
Tooele Army Depot in the 70's The Army chose incineration as
its baseline technology.
In 1986, public law 99-145 directed the following
actions:
- Destroy the United States stockpile of lethal chemical
agents;
|
- Provide maximum protection for the environment and public;
|
- Dismantle disposal facilities when chemical disposal is
completed;
|
- Set up a management organization headed by a
general officer to conduct the disposal program;
|
- Fund the disposal program in a separate Department of Defense
account.
|
In 1984, the National Research Council endorsed the Army's
chosen disposal method of munitions disassembly, agent
incineration, and thermal treatment of energetics and metal
parts. The Army requested and Congress approved funding in 1985 for
the construction of a prototype chemical agent disposal
facility on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
BACK
TO TOP
HNC Background
On
August 19, 1981 a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between
the U. S. Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency (USATHAMA)
and the Huntsville Division (CEHND) to provide engineering
support to the Chemical Demilitarization Program. The program
management of the chemical demilitarization shifted from
USATHAMA to the Office of the Program for Chemical Munitions (OPMCM),
then to the Program Executive Officer-Program Manager for
Chemical Demilitarization (PEO-PM Cml Demil) The Soldier and
Chemical and Biological Defense Command (formerly the U. S.
Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency), created an agency
called the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD)
to provide intensive oversight of the Chemical Stockpile
Disposal Program. This agency was made up primarily of research scientists who had developed
chemical weapons and defenses. Management of the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program
shifted from the Chemical and Biological Defense Command to PMCD in 1986.
Congress, in 1988, mandated the destruction of the
United States' chemical stockpile due to the obsolescence of
the stockpile and the potential for accidental release from
continued storage. The
systems contract for the Tooele Chemical Disposal Facility,
the first of eight disposal plants to be built within the
continental United States was awarded in 1989.
To assure that both the prototype facility at Johnston
Atoll and the facility at Tooele met both EPA and state
emissions requirements, the design required that exhaust
gasses from incineration be sent through an afterburner and
then to a state-of-the art pollution abatement system to
remove gaseous pollutants and particulates.
In June 1990, PMCD began Operational Verification
Testing at the Johnston Atoll Facility as required by Congress
before construction of the Tooele Facility could begin in the
continental US. This
testing, along with risk assessment studies, indicated that
incineration was a safe method of disposal, meeting stringent
EPA and state regulatory agency emissions requirements.
An international agreement was signed on April 29, 1994 that
requires that signatories destroy their chemical agent and
weapons within 10 years, or by April 29, 2007,
A major
milestone in the chemical weapons program was achieved in 2000
when the plant completed the safe destruction of all chemical
weapons material stored on Johnston Atoll.
BACK
TO TOP
Huntsville
Engineering and Support Center mission
Provide planning, engineering,
design, construction, contracting, and equipment procurement
support to the Chemical Demilitarization Program which
includes the following programs:
-
Chemical Stockpile Disposal (CSDP)
-
Alternative Technologies and
Approaches (ATA)
-
Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR)
-
Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment
(ACWA)
-
Assembled Chemical Weapons
Alternatives (ACWA) (Previously the above
-
Simulation Equipment
Test Hardware (SETH)
-
Chemical Agent
Munitions Disposal System (CAMDS)
-
1990 - HQUSACE
designated HND LCPM for Chemical Demilitarization
-
1992 - HQUSACE
assigned HND the Chem Demil Construction Mission