United States Army Chemical Materials Agency

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) is a major sub-command of the United States Army Materiel Command

United States Army Materiel Command

The U.S. Army Materiel Command is the primary provider of materiel to the United States Army.The Command's mission includes the research & development of weapons systems as well as maintenance and parts distribution....

(AMC) and a reporting element of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology

United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology

The Office of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology is known as OASA...

. Its role is to enhance national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

by securely storing and ultimately eliminating U.S. chemical warfare

Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...

materiel

Materiel

Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....

, while protecting the work force, the public and the environment to the maximum extent.

CMA leads the world in chemical weapons destruction with a demonstrated history of safely storing, recovering, assessing and destroying U.S. chemical weapons and related materials. CMA manages destruction of all U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles except for the two that fall under the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives neutralization program. Through its Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), CMA works with local, state and federal emergency preparedness and response agencies at chemical weapon stockpile locations.

The Army operates its disposal activities under congressional direction. Federal agencies and the independent National Academy of Sciences'

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

National Research Council

United States National Research Council

The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...

, together with equivalent agencies at the state and local level, also are involved in regulation and oversight of aspects of the destruction program with the exception of fiscal management.

History

The Army combined elements from the former United States Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command and the former Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization to consolidate the Army's chemical agent and munitions storage and demilitarization functions under a single organization.

Organization

CMA headquarters is based at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground

Aberdeen Proving Ground

Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army facility located near Aberdeen, Maryland, . Part of the facility is a census-designated place , which had a population of 3,116 at the 2000 census.- History :...

in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. CMA site teams are located at the individual stockpile locations where storage and destruction takes place as shown below.

Destruction

CMA is responsible for two distinct chemical weapons destruction projects.

The Project Manager Chemical Stockpile Elimination http://www.cma.army.mil/csep.aspx manages the safe treatment and disposal of chemical weapons using incineration and neutralization technologies.

Incineration was selected as the Army’s chemical weapons disposal technology in 1985 based on rigorous tests and comparisons of various technologies. Anniston

Anniston Munitions Center

The Anniston Defense Munitions Center located at Anniston Army Depot is a multi-functional ammunition facility. The primary mission is receipt, storage, surveillance and shipment of missiles and conventional ammunition...

, Alabama, Pine Bluff

Pine Bluff Arsenal

The Pine Bluff Arsenal is a US Army installation located in Jefferson County, Arkansas, just northwest of the city of Pine Bluff. PBA is one of the six Army installations in the United States that store chemical weapons...

, Arkansas, Umatilla

Umatilla Chemical Depot

The Umatilla Chemical Depot, based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installations in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various munitions and ton containers containing GB and VX nerve agents and HD blister agent...

, Oregon, and Tooele

Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility or TOCDF, is a U.S. Army facility located at Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah and is used for dismantling chemical weapons. Destruction is a requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention and is monitored by the Organisation for the...

, Utah, use incineration for chemical weapons destruction. The first incineration facility was built on Johnston Atoll

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System was the U.S. Army's first chemical munitions disposal facility. It was located on Johnston Island, at Johnston Atoll and completed its mission and ceased operation in 2000.-Background:...

in the Pacific Ocean and safely completed destruction operations in November 2000. The facility was dismantled and the atoll was returned to its natural state and serves as a wildlife refuge.

Neutralization was first selected as an alternative to incineration for bulk agent storage sites. Depending on the type of agent to be destroyed, neutralization destroys the chemical agent by mixing it with hot water or hot water and sodium hydroxide. The industrial wastewater produced by the process, known as hydrolysate, is sent to a permitted commercial hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal facility for treatment and disposal. This process was used safely in Edgewood

Edgewood Chemical Activity

The Edgewood Chemical Activity was a U.S. Army site located in Edgewood, Maryland that stored chemical weapons. Since 1941, the U.S. Army stored approximately five percent of the nation's original chemical agent in steel ton containers, at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground...

, Maryland, to eliminate its entire stockpile of mustard agent and in Newport

Newport Chemical Depot

The Newport Chemical Depot, previously known as the Wabash River Ordinance Works and the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, was a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility in west central Indiana, thirty miles north of Terre Haute operated by the United States Army...

, Indiana, to eliminate its entire stockpile of VX nerve agent. Both the mustard agent stockpile in Edgewood and the VX nerve agent stockpile in Newport were stored in large steel containers without explosives or other weapon components. Neutralization is the selected method for the Department of Defense’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives facilities in Pueblo

Pueblo Chemical Depot

The Pueblo Chemical Depot is a chemical weapons storage site located in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States.The depot houses 2,611 tons of mustard agent in approximately 780,000 munitions, equivalent to about seven percent of the original chemical material stockpile of the United States...

, Colorado, and Richmond

Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant

The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant is a chemical weapons destruction facility under construction. The plant is being built to destroy the chemical weapons stockpile at the Blue Grass Army Depot , near Richmond, Kentucky...

, Kentucky.

The Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project http://www.cma.army.mil/nscmp.aspx (NSCMP) was founded in 1992 to provide centralized management and direction to the Department of Defense for the destruction of declared non-stockpile chemical materiel in a safe, environmentally sound and cost-effective manner. The project’s responsibilities include assessment and treatment of recovered chemical warfare materiel declared prior to entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention

Chemical Weapons Convention

The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction...

(CWC), an international treaty signed by the United States. NSCMP’s non-intrusive assessment systems identify the chemical agent fill of recovered items and the presence or absence of explosive components, allowing for proper handling and treatment. The items can be treated in an on-site system that contains any blast, agent and vapor.

NSCMP is best known for its history of responding to chemical weapons recovered at military installations, former defense sites and communities. NSCMP’s highly specialized equipment is employed in a manner that protects workers, citizens and the environment.

In December 2006, NSCMP successfully completed demolition of the nation’s former chemical warfare production facilities. In November 2007, it successfully completed destruction of the binary chemical weapon inventory.

Storage

CMA is responsible for the safe storage of the nation’s entire chemical weapons stockpile before its ultimate destruction. CMA manages a National Inventory Control Point and National Maintenance Point to ensure the stockpile is maintained safely and securely during its remaining storage life.

CMA partners with the Department of Homeland Security through CSEPP to ensure effective emergency preparedness of the communities surrounding the stockpile storage sites. CSEPP provides funding for chemical accident response equipment and warning systems. CSEPP also oversees yearly community-wide emergency preparedness exercises at all of the stockpile sites and works with communities to conduct public education activities to enable residents to respond appropriately in the unlikely event of a chemical stockpile incident.

International Cooperation

CMA is meeting its commitment as outlined in the 1997 CWC, which more than 180 nations have signed as their pledge to rid the world of this class of weapons. CMA also shares lessons learned through its reporting to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is an intergovernmental organization, located in The Hague, Netherlands. The organization promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention which prohibits of the use of chemical weapons and requires their destruction...

which is charged with implementing the CWC. Finally, CMA participates in the annual international Chemical Weapons Destruction Conference in which experts from CWC member nations share technology and lessons learned.

External links

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