ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- A world leader in the development and implementation of innovative programs to safely and effectively eradicate chemical weapons, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) provides management and direction for the storage, assessment and treatment of chemical warfare materiel, while ensuring the public is prepared in an emergency.
Despite the organization's successes over the past several decades, many people outside the chemical weapons community are likely unaware of what the U.S. Army Materiel Command subordinate organization provides to the nation and its allies, said Col. Nathaniel Farmer, CMA director.
"With CMA's history of successfully eliminating chemical weapons, I'm proud not only of our exceptional safety record, but of the many methods we have employed for more than two decades to implement effective, efficient procedures. We are always seeking improvement," Farmer said.
CMA effectively destroyed the portion of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile for which it was responsible -- nearly 90 percent -- in addition to extensive non-stockpile items.
"I suppose our anonymity is part of our success, because we operate so safely," he said. "Today, our
footprint has decreased, but we still are here, with the same focus on our mission."
That mission is headquartered at the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where
staff ensures the two remaining storage sites -- Blue Grass Chemical Activity at Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky, and Pueblo Chemical Depot, Colorado -- can accomplish their missions to deliver chemical weapons to the destruction facilities when destruction operations begin.
The staff takes safe-handling and storage of chemical weapons seriously, said Steven Penrod, CMA Mission Operations director.
"At the two remaining stockpile sites, CMA ensures the items remain safely protected and monitored pending treatment," Penrod said. Both remaining stockpile sites partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to implement the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program to ensure protection for the surrounding communities. The program establishes key partnerships between state and local emergency management officials to enhance emergency management plans and provide response equipment and warning systems.
"Even with a proven record of safety, our top priority remains collaboration with key partners in the communities to ensure preparedness for any situation," said Farmer, who has led CMA since 2014. "Building relationships and knowing our partners allows all of us to navigate any situation."
Meanwhile, CMA's Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate (RCMD) continues to respond to installations and burial sites around the country, managing the assessment and destruction of
recovered chemical warfare materiel. RCMD uses mobile technology to assess recovered items to
determine the chemical fill, and can destroy the items on location.
"Our team provides the direction and support from the moment the item is recovered to waste disposal at the end of the mission," said RCMD Director Laurence Gottschalk, who has more than 32 years of experience in the chemical demilitarization field. "This is a capability that the United States will always require."
RCMD deploys the Mobile Munitions Assessment System to the location of the recovered item, where nonintrusive assessment technologies determine whether an item is explosively configured or contains chemical agent. If chemical agent is confirmed, RCMD works with the site to develop destruction plans and coordinate permits with state and federal regulators, and ultimately deploy the Explosive Destruction System, a stainless steel vessel that contains the blast, vapor and fragments from the destruction process.
"After explosively opening the munition, which destroys any energetics and exposes the agent, a chemical reaction within the vessel neutralizes the chemical contents," Gottschalk said.
In compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a treaty ratified by the U.S. in 1997, all chemical weapons and former chemical weapons production facilities must be destroyed.
CMA met all treaty-mandated milestones, which for RCMD included destruction of binary chemical
weapons and components, and destruction of facilities that produced chemical weapons. CWC treaty
inspectors work closely with RCMD project management staff during mission operations to ensure
all activities comply with treaty requirements.
With decades of combined chemical weapons remediation experience, CMA continues to seek opportunities and collaboration to enhance technologies and build on past successes to keep the U.S. safe.
More information on CMA's mission and activities can be found online at https://www.cma.army.mil.
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