On approximately 85 acres of prairie land in Southeastern Colorado, hundreds of trained technicians are operating a first-of-a-kind plant designed and built to methodically disassemble and destroy World War II-era chemical weapons containing the blister agent, mustard. The chemical agent, which is contained within thousands of projectiles and mortars, has been safely stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot since the early 1950s.

The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant began chemical agent destruction operations on Sept. 7, 2016. The Bechtel Pueblo Team, which includes engineers, munitions transporters, surety specialists and lab technicians, is responsible for safely destroying what is now the largest remaining chemical weapons stockpile in the United States. The plant is using the destruction technology neutralization followed by biotreatment to destroy the chemical agent.

This infographic highlights the total amount of chemical agent in Pueblo’s original stockpile; the amount of chemical agent and munitions destroyed by PCAPP to date; and, lastly, the amount of chemical weapons destroyed by an alternative system at the depot called the Explosive Destruction System.