A student fully encapsulated in a protective suit at the Chemical Demilitarization Training Facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., rolls a simulated waste barrel in the Demilitarization Equipment Room. The facility recently celebrated a perfect safety record of no lost-time accidents in the past 15 years. Download High-Res Image

The U.S. Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) safely stores and destroys the nation's aging chemical weapons, effectively recovers the nation's chemical warfare materiel and enhances national security.

The agency's headquarters' management team, as well as scientific, communications and support staff are based at the Edgewood Area of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, while other dedicated managers and staff fulfill the agency's mission from weapons storage and disposal at locations across the county.

Destruction

Incineration technology is being used at Anniston Army Depot, AL; Pine Bluff Arsenal, AR; Umatilla Chemical Depot, OR; and Deseret Chemical Depot, UT.

Disposal operations using neutralization technology were completed in February 2006 at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, facility - eliminating more than five percent of the nation’s chemical agent inventory. The disposal facility is now closed. The Newport Chemical Depot, IN, facility completed chemical stockpile disposal operations in August 2008 – eliminating four percent of the nation’s chemical agent inventory. Closure operations at the site are now underway.

In 2000, CMA successfully completed destruction of all chemical weapons formerly stored at Johnston Island, in the Pacific Ocean.

The Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project (NSCMP) leads the nation in the development and utilization of advance technology to safely eliminate America's remaining non-stockpile chemical materiel in a safe, environmentally sound and cost-effective manner. NSCMP researches and develops treatment options and destruction plans that comply with all federal, state and local regulations and encourage public participation in its activities.

CMA is complying with in the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty which the United States and more than 150 other nations have signed as their pledge to rid the world of chemical weapons.

Congress established the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program in 1997 to test and demonstrate at least two alternative technologies to the baseline incineration process for the demilitarization of assembled chemical weapons. In Pueblo, CO neutralization followed by biotreatment will be used to destroy the Pueblo stockpile and in Blue Grass, KY neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation is being implemented. Contract teams at both Colorado and Kentucky are currently designing pilot test facilities which will ultimately lead to the safe destruction of chemical weapons.

Storage

CMA is also responsible for safe storage of the nation's chemical weapon materiels pending its ultimate destruction. CMA manages a National Inventory Control Point and National Maintenance Point to ensure the stockpile is maintained safely during its remaining storage life.

The agency also partners with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the emergency preparedness of the communities surrounding the depots where stockpiled chemical weapons are stored. The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program works closely with communities adjacent to the nation's eight remaining chemical weapons stockpiles. Its mission centers on enhancing emergency response plans and training, and identifying and securing response equipment and warning systems to meet each communities' emergency preparedness needs.