Pine Bluff Arsenal's Quality Evaluation Facility achieved a significant milestone in July with the approval of chemical surety status. This means that the QEF, which is one of two government owned-government operated laboratory facilities in the United States, will be able to conduct testing on chemical defense equipment and protective clothing with chemical agent material.
"Attainment of surety status for the QEF is the culmination of the Arsenal's decade-long effort to develop a full life-cycle management capability for chemical and biological defense products and equipment," said Phillip Vick, director of Chemical and Biological Defense Operations. "This capability solidly positions PBA as the Organic Industrial Base's 'one-stop shop' for these products and helps ensure the Arsenal's high value to the Army and the Department of Defense."
Terry Hardin, chief of Testing and Surveillance Division, Directorate of Chemical and Biological Defense Operations, said that the process to gain surety status has been in the works for approximately three years.
"There are several processes we had to go through to get to that safety and environmental status where we could work with surety materials," he said. "You have to make sure you have the security and environmental controls in place, and upgrade those certain features to meet requirements that are set by the Department of Defense."
Safety is a big part of the process to make certain that employees will be able to work with the surety material in a safe manner. "We had to go through some rigorous practices in order to ensure that employees are proficient with these materials," said Hardin.
"The QEF currently tests M100 decontamination kits, M295 decontamination kits and the C2A1 canisters that go on Soldier gas masks," said Hardin. "Some of the testing in the past has been sent off post. With this status, we can now bring this testing back into our QEF labs. This will be a big cost-savings as well as a time-saver."
Having employees with institutional knowledge of surety as part of the QEF team helped with the status process.
"As the surety officer, I have oversight of the program and have to make sure that we are in compliance with all the regulatory requirements," said Barbara Smith, who originally came from the Pine Bluff Chemical Activity. "A surety program is stringent. The people who worked here at the QEF couldn't quite wrap their heads around that at first, but once they got this part, it worked out great. It is all about documentation and oversight."
Smith said there is going to be a lot of workload but this is a good thing. "This is a great thing for chem-bio overall," she said. "This is a major plus for this directorate."
Melanie Moore, quality assurance specialist, said she was brought over because she has approximately 25 years of experience of working in the old PBCA lab using chemical agent materials. "I also have an ISO audit background which was helpful with all the documentation that had to be reviewed for the surety status," she said. "We have to make sure that quality piece is in there too."
Moore said that she thinks this status will really open some doors for future work here at the Arsenal. "With everything going on in the world today, I can't imagine that our work here won't be relevant in keeping the Warfighter protected in all situations," she said. "Another thing I have noticed about the group her at the QEF is that where one of us is weak, the other is strong. It really takes a team."
Physical science technician Kim Williams said that he is proud of the QEF. "This is a great thing and a tremendous gain for the Pine Bluff Arsenal, "said Williams. "I remember when we started this process and all the plans were put in place in get it done. Once we got a few other people involved things fell into place. It took a team to get here."
The QEF has a unique mission, said Ron Hoffman, chemist. Hoffman also worked with the PBCA lab, bringing in that institutional knowledge.
"This is a natural next step for us. The workload is out there. The QEF will be an operational type lab--a working lab," he said. "This status just augments what we have been testing for years."
The history of the QEF began in April 1992 when a study revealed major deficiencies in chemical defense capabilities by the U.S. Army. According to a fact sheet about PBA's QEF, a report in 1996 said that deploying units lacked required equipment, including use of shelf-life expired items, in spite of the increasing threat of chemical and biological warfare.
In 2001, funding was approved for the construction of the QEF, which was completed in 2005. According to Hardin, the Arsenal has been testing chemical defense equipment since 1979.
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