The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, or PEO ACWA, is responsible for the safe and environmentally compliant destruction of the remaining U.S. chemical weapons stockpile stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
Learn more about the history of PEO ACWA.
Chemical Weapons Stockpile Destruction in
Colorado
The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or PCAPP, is safely destroying mustard agent-filled artillery projectiles and mortar rounds stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado, that originally stored 2,613 U.S. tons of chemical agent. The pilot plant is using neutralization followed by biotreatment or an explosive destruction technology to safely destroy the munitions.
PCAPP began main plant agent destruction operations on Sept. 7, 2016. The program is targeting destruction of the stockpile by the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty commitment of Sept. 30, 2023. U.S. Public Law mandates stockpile destruction by Dec. 31, 2023.
Explosive destruction technologies were selected to augment the Pueblo plant to destroy a number of problematic munitions that could not be easily destroyed by the main plant’s automated equipment. The Explosive Destruction System was used during two campaigns from March 2015 to December 2018 and eliminated 951 items resulting in 3.82 U.S. tons of mustard agent being reported as destroyed to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. On Feb. 19, 2022, PCAPP begin using three Static Detonation Chamber units to destroy problematic mustard agent-filled munitions from the stockpile in Colorado.
Chemical Weapons Stockpile Destruction in
Kentucky
The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or BGCAPP, is safely destroying the nerve agents VX and GB (sarin) and mustard agent in rockets and projectiles stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky, that originally stored 523 U.S. tons of chemical agent. The Blue Grass plant is using neutralization or an explosive destruction technology to safely destroy the munitions.
BGCAPP began main plant agent destruction operations on Jan. 17, 2020. The program is targeting destruction of the stockpile by the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty commitment of Sept. 30, 2023. U.S. Public Law mandates stockpile destruction by Dec. 31, 2023.
Explosive destruction technology was selected to destroy all mustard agent projectiles, as well as two 3-gallon Department of Transportation bottles containing mustard agent. Static Detonation Chamber units will also process containerized, drained rocket warheads and overpacked rockets from the nerve agent stockpile to augment main plant destruction in Kentucky. Operations of the Blue Grass Static Detonation Chamber began on June 7, 2019, and concluded Sept. 4, 2021, with the destruction of all mustard munitions of the stockpile in Kentucky. The facility is now being converted to the Static Detonation Chamber 1200, to destroy containerized, drained VX rocket warheads, and the Static Detonation Chamber 2000 is being used to destroy containerized, drained and undrained GB rocket warheads and overpacked GB rockets.
United States Chemical Demilitarization Map
