The final campaign to eliminate chemical weapons stored at Blue Grass Army Depot is underway. Officials charged with carrying out disposal say, by design, it’s a slow, deliberate process.
Workers at the Madison County army facility are destroying GB nerve agent rockets. Candace Coyle is the site project manager at the Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant. She said the factory changeover for this type of neutralization, at less than 90 days, was the shortest in demilitarization history.
“A little over two weeks ahead of schedule on this last campaign. The proficiency as a workforce has been outstanding and safety is definitely at the forefront as we go into this last campaign,” said Coyle.
Ron Hink is the project manager with the contractor, Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass. He said there is not a specific daily goal when it comes to rocket disposal. Hink noted it will be a methodical ramp-up over the first month.
“We made some adjustments to optimize the line and now we’ve really got to tune them in. So, we’re deliberately starting very, very slow, running one through at a time, making adjustments. And then following it up with another one and making sure we made the right adjustments and just working through that,” said Hink
The entire 500-plus tons of the Madison County stockpile is expected to be history by the end of September in 2023.
