One year after overseeing the safe end to the stockpile of obsolete chemical weapons stored for decades at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot, plant managers and community leaders are looking back with pride on the accomplishment and forward with confidence as they forge on through closure.
The final munition in the Colorado stockpile was destroyed on June 22, 2023. More than 2,613 U.S. tons of chemical agent were destroyed at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant using technologies that had never been attempted on such a mass scale.
“The neutralization, as opposed to incineration, of a large chemical weapons stockpile was a tremendous achievement, a case study in innovation, technology, dedication and engineering that no one had accomplished before,” said Walton Levi, site project manager, PCAPP.
More than 780,000 chemical munitions were destroyed in Colorado from 2015 to 2023 by a workforce who recorded 12 million hours without a lost-time incident.
“When I look back at the significant effort required to eliminate nearly 800,000 mustard agent-filled munitions—and to do it safely—it gives me a sense of pride in the workforce, as they were vested in finishing this project safely and as efficiently as possible,” said Todd Ailes, project manager, Bechtel Pueblo Team. “Bechtel partnered with the Pueblo community, Amentum, Battelle and GP Strategies with a collective commitment to seeing this project through closure, making the world, the state and the community safer.”
After a public celebration of the milestone in August 2023 in downtown Pueblo, project leaders looked forward to closing the 85-acre agent-destruction site in accordance with all laws and regulatory requirements and, ultimately, returning the land to Pueblo County citizens. The current and last phase for the Pueblo plant, closure, is expected to take approximately three years and includes:
- Disposal of secondary wastes
- Decontamination and decommissioning of facilities and equipment
- Disposition of property
- Demolition of some facilities
- Close-out of contracts and environmental permits
- Archiving of records
Plant personnel spent the final months of 2023 honing details of a closure plan that required approval by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, received March 29, 2024.
Irene Kornelly, chair, Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens’ Advisory Commission, said she is particularly proud that the entire demilitarization project was protective of human health and the environment, which will continue throughout the closure process. She said the high standards for cleanup required by state regulators and the diligence required by the closure plan will ensure the state will not have to return in the future.
“We will have a complicated cleanup here in Pueblo as we prepare the land for future community use,” she said. “Our goal is to protect people from harm throughout all the stages of that cleanup and beyond.”