CONTACT: Tom Schultz
thomas.c.schultz.civ@mail.mil
719-549-4959
U.S. ARMY PUEBLO CHEMICAL DEPOT, Colo. – Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) leaders and program partners welcomed dignitaries from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, Executive Council to Colorado April 8-9, for a site visit and tour of the PCAPP facility.
Personnel from the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of State, as well as area partners from community organizations such as the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens’ Advisory Commission, or CAC, met with the OPCW representatives. Council members received updates on the progress completed at PCAPP since the last EC visit to the site in 2015 and toured the PCAPP Training Facility, as well as portions of the chemical demilitarization plant.
“This important visit allows representatives from the OPCW Executive Council to observe the Army’s safe and secure storage of the largest remaining U.S. chemical weapons stockpile and the Army’s support to completing destruction operations in accordance with our International Treaty obligations,” said Col. Christopher Grice, U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot Commander.
During the visit, U.S. officials restated their commitment to achieve 100 percent destruction of U.S. chemical weapons as soon as practicable, consistent with the Chemical Weapons Convention imperatives of public safety, environmental protection, and international transparency and oversight. Recently PCAPP announced the destruction of 25% of the agent in Pueblo chemical stockpile toward meeting that goal.
The destruction of the remaining two U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles, stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky, is a function of the Department of Defense as mandated by law. The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PEO ACWA) is responsible for executing this function. PEO ACWA is aligned under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, a component of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, and is attached to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center.
