PEO Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives

The skyline at the Blue Grass plant is changing. Demolition of main plant support structures, such as the filter banks, hydrolysate storage tanks, medical building and other buildings, is well underway.

Demolition began April 15 on the facility that was the centerpiece of chemical weapons destruction at the Blue Grass plant.

“It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end,” said Shannon Pendergrass, site project manager, Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or BGCAPP. “This milestone has been the goal for Blue Grass plant personnel for more than two years. An incredible amount of focus and coordination was required to get to this point.”

The demolition subcontractor, Independence Excavating, is tearing down the main plant. The first structures to come down were the Munitions Demilitarization Building filter bank clean-air exhaust stacks.

“Demolition is the most visible work activity in the closure phase,” said Joe Curcio, project manager, Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass, or BPBG, the systems contractor chosen by the Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives to design, build, test, operate and close BGCAPP. “Through every phase of our project safety has been the constant theme and it remains the focus during demolition.”

This point was the culmination of dozens of small milestones, each step focused on safety. The work was guided by a detailed permit approved and monitored by the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, or KDEP.

As those milestones were reached, equipment was cleaned and dismantled and rooms were decontaminated of chemical agent, the results were confirmed by unventilated monitoring tests. KDEP officials have verified that BGCAPP is free from any chemical-agent liability.

Decommissioning and decontaminating the main plant began a few days after the last chemical weapon was destroyed July 7, 2023. In the months since then, workers and operators performed almost 1,500 entries in Demilitarization Protective Ensembles and more than 3,000 protectively masked entries to effectively decontaminate and in many cases, remove agent-contaminated equipment, said Mike Noyes, plant manager, BPBG.

The final steps before demolition began were removing universal and electronic waste, capping off water lines and fire suppression systems and shutting off the electricity.

The two Static Detonation Chamber units, where drained, containerized rocket warheads, classified as agent-contaminated secondary waste, were processed, are also ready for demolition.

The team remains vigilant for the safety of the workforce, the community and the environment.

The BGCAPP team destroyed more than 523 tons of mustard and nerve agent stored at the depot since the 1940s. The demolition stage is expected to be complete in 2027, followed by administrative close-out in 2028.