PBCDF nears completion of construction.

The pine bluff chemical agent Disposal Facility (PBCDF) is expected to complete construction on the incinerator by December of this year, maybe even as early as Thanksgiving. Randy Long, PBCDF Site Project Manager, and Dan Swaim, Project General Manager of the Washington Demilitarization Company (WDC), recently made this projection to the West Pine Bluff Rotary Club. The WDC team was awarded the PBCDF construction, systemization, operation, and closure contract by the Army.

Following completion of construction, the PBCDF will go through a i 6-month systemization period during which components of the plant will be thoroughly checked and tested. Next, a series of trial burns using surrogates (chemicals more difficult to destroy than the chemical agents) occurs, followed by agent trial burns involving the chemical agents themselves. Finally, the milestone of Agent Operations will begin in April 2004.

Activities at the PBCDF began in January 1999. Since that time, PBCDF has won awards for safe heavy industry construction. As the project moves into systemization, the PBCDF has, been chosen as the pilot demilitarization facility for meeting the requirements of Executive Order 13148, a Clinton Administration Order directing all federal agencies to exhibit leadership- in implementing formal Environmental Management Systems by 2005. The Bush Administration has since embraced and promoted this initiative, and the Department of Defense has committed to applying the internationally recognized ISO 14001 template as the guide for Environmental Management Systems at defense facilities. PBCDF will provide a model for the other demilitarization facilities.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal stores the second largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the United States, exceeded only by the facility in Tooele, Utah, where weapons destruction activities are already under way. Washington Demilitarization Company is the system contractor at similar plants in Anniston, Ala.; Umatilla, Ore.; and on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific. Through the international treaty, the United States has committed to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons by 2007, a goal that has taken on new urgency since last year's terrorist attacks.