- 1985 – Public Law 99-145 designates the U.S. Army responsible for the destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile.
- 1996 – Public Law 104-208 establishes the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program to identify and demonstrate alternatives to incineration of the obsolete U.S. Chemical Weapons stockpile.
- 2002 – The Department of Defense (DOD) approves neutralization followed by biotreatment as the official destruction method for the Colorado stockpile.
- 2002 – ACWA awards the Bechtel Pueblo Team the contract to design, construct, pilot test, operate and close the Pueblo pilot plant.
- 2002 – Public Law 107-248 assigns ACWA responsibility for destruction of the chemical weapons stored in Kentucky and Colorado if alternative technologies are chosen. ACWA’s expanded mission results in a name change from “Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment” to “Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives” in June 2003.
- 2003 – ACWA awards the Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass team the contract to design, construct, pilot test, operate and close the Blue Grass pilot plant.
- 2003 – DOD approves neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation as the official destruction method for the Kentucky chemical weapons stockpile.
- 2004 – ACWA breaks ground for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP), which marked the start of plant construction in Colorado. Soon thereafter, however, design of processing facilities and Stage One construction activities were suspended while the program evaluated cost reduction measures. In March 2005, design and construction of PCAPP officially restarted.
- 2006 – ACWA breaks ground for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) in Kentucky.
- 2007 – Congress enacts legislation (Public Law 104-208 and 110-181) mandating the destruction of the remaining U.S. national chemical stockpile by the Chemical Weapons Convention deadline of April 29, 2012, but in no circumstances later than Dec. 31, 2017.
- 2007 – ACWA initiates Operation Swift Solution at the Blue Grass Army Depot to safely eliminate three deteriorating steel containers holding a mixture of the chemical agent GB and its breakdown products that had occurred over time in storage with support from the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
- 2007 – The Department of Defense formally certifies ACWA to Congress under the provisions of Nunn-McCurdy. The Acquisition Program Baseline for the ACWA program is approved by the Department of Defense with a total program life-cycle cost of approximately $8 billion.
- 2007 – ACWA is formally activated as the U.S. Army Element, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, a separate reporting activity under U.S. Army Materiel Command. Under this arrangement, ACWA receives administrative and logistics support from Army Materiel Command, but the ACWA program manager continues to report directly to DOD as required by Public Law 105-261.
- 2009 – DOD provides Congress options for accelerating the ACWA program per Public Laws 110-116 and 110-181. The proposed plan seeks additional resources to: 1) aim toward the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (now Activity) (CMA) completing stockpile under its purview (90 percent of the U.S. stockpile) by 2012 by utilizing performance incentives and risk mitigation actions; and 2) accelerate the ACWA program schedule towards completing the destruction of an additional eight percent of the U.S. stockpile at PCAPP in 2017 and the remaining two percent of the U.S. stockpile at BGCAPP in 2021.
- 2009 – A study finds that the Army’s ability to meet public and congressional desires to destroy all the declared chemical weapons would be enhanced by the selection and acquisition of appropriate explosive destruction technologies to augment the main technologies to be used to destroy the chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD).
- 2009 – In May, DOD submits its Semi-Annual Chemical Demilitarization Program Report to Congress in conjunction with the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2010, laying out the path forward and funding requirements necessary to accelerate the ACWA program in order to complete the destruction of the PCAPP chemical stockpile by 2017 and the BGCAPP stockpile by 2021. In October, DOD requests that the ACWA Program Manager study how to maintain continuity of demilitarization operations between CMA completion and ACWA start-up, consistent with ongoing efforts to accelerate destruction operations in both Colorado and Kentucky. In December, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-118) is signed into law.
- 2011 – The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics certifies the ACWA program to Congress under the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment. The Under Secretary subsequently directs ACWA to proceed with the program without any significant changes to the destruction technology.
- 2012 – ACWA is redesignated as the Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PEO ACWA) and administratively reassigned to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. This transition is directed to raise the program’s visibility and obtain necessary support and resources. As mandated by law, the program’s direct reporting connection to the Department of Defense remains unchanged.
- 2013 – Explosive Destruction Technologies are selected to augment PCAPP and BGCAPP by destroying problematic chemical munitions. The Explosive Destruction System, or EDS, is the U.S. Army system initially selected to destroy problematic munitions in Colorado. Construction begins on the PCAPP EDS site in March 2014. The Static Detonation Chamber (SDC) is the technology selected to destroy the entire mustard agent stockpile in Kentucky and reject chemical munitions in Colorado. Construction on the Blue Grass SDC begins in December 2014.
- 2014 – The PEO ACWA Anniston Field Office is established to ensure that the technical expertise and experience of the staff at the former Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, as well as the facility’s SDC, would be preserved and leveraged during chemical weapons destruction in Colorado and Kentucky. The SDC will destroy energetics from Pueblo munitions and non-contaminated motors from the Blue Grass M55 rockets.
- 2015 – Chemical stockpile destruction in Colorado is initiated on location at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot (now known as the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity-West) near PCAPP, with the start of the EDS.
- 2016 – The DOD Appropriations Act, 2008 (Public Law 110-116) and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110-181) directed DOD to complete destruction of the entire national chemical weapons stockpile by the deadline established by the Chemical Weapons Convention (April 29, 2012), and in no circumstances later than Dec. 31, 2017. This deadline was subsequently extended to Dec. 31, 2023, by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Public Law 114-92).
- 2016 – On Sept. 7, the PCAPP main plant begins chemical weapons destruction operations.
- 2018 – SDC technology is selected to augment the PCAPP main plant by destroying problematic munitions.
- 2019 – On June 7, the BGCAPP SDC begins operations, destroying mustard agent-filled projectiles.
- 2020 – On Jan. 17, the BGCAPP main plant enters the operations phase with the destruction of the first 8-inch projectile containing GB nerve agent.
- 2020 – In August, PEO ACWA determines the supercritical water oxidation system at BGCAPP will not be used to process hydrolysate, the product of the nerve-agent neutralization process, due to system performance during testing.
- 2021 – On Feb. 9, the ACWA program executive officer recommends nerve-agent hydrolysate generated at BGCAPP be treated off-site using incineration.
- 2022 – On April 19, PEO ACWA eliminates all VX nerve agent weapons from the declared U.S. stockpile, with the completion of destruction of VX M55 rockets at BGCAPP.
- 2023 – On Jan. 27, the BGCAPP SDC 2000 begins destroying containerized rocket warheads drained of GB nerve agent, classified as agent-contaminated secondary waste.
- 2023 – On June 16, the last munition, a 4.2-inch mortar round, is destroyed in the Pueblo main plant.
- 2023 – On June 22, the last chemical munition in the stockpile in Colorado, an overpacked 155mm projectile, is destroyed in the PCAPP SDC complex.
- 2023 – On July 7, PEO ACWA destroys the last chemical weapon in the stockpile in Kentucky and the declared U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, an M55 rocket containing GB nerve agent, at BGCAPP.
- 2023 – On Sept. 27, Kentucky environmental regulators approve the BGCAPP permit modification request for closure.
- 2023 – On Oct. 25, the BGCAPP SDC 1200 begins destroying containerized rocket warheads drained of VX nerve agent, classified as agent-contaminated secondary waste.
- 2024 – On March 29, Colorado environmental regulators approve the PCAPP main plant closure plan.
- 2024 – On Nov. 5, Colorado environmental regulators approve the PCAPP SDC closure plan, setting the stage for future reuse of the three units by DOD organizations.
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