U.S. Army contracts for chemical weapons destruction in Hawaii
As part of the military’s commitment to recover and destroy buried chemical weapons, the U.S. Army Project Manager for Non-Stockpile Chemical Warfare Materiel (PM NSCM) awarded CH2M HILL a contract potentially valued at $4.6 million.
Based in Denver, Colo., CH2M HILL is an engineering, construction and operations firm that has harnessed technology to develop a Controlled Detonation Chamber (CDC) for destroying chemical weapons.
The project at Schofield Barracks will involve close collaboration between CH2M HILL and the U.S. Army. CH2M HILL will be responsible for transporting the CDC system to the site, setting up the system in a temporary facility, providing technical support during operations, and disassembling and returning the CDC system once the project is completed. The Army will be responsible for overall project execution and operation of the CDC system.
According to the company, the CDC system is the only transportable detonation chamber approved by the U.S. Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board for the destruction of conventional munitions, including munitions and explosives of concern (MEC). More than 1,500 sites in the United States, encompassing an estimated 15 million acres, may contain MEC.
Growing public concern about traditional open-burn and open-detonation approaches for destroying MEC led to CH2M HILL’s development of the environmentally friendly CDC system, which offers numerous applications for demilitarization, anti-terrorism and chemical-warfare projects.
This military project is a continuation of the Army’s technology evaluation and acquisition process for the CDC system. Successful completion of the project will reportedly result in operational certification of the CDC system so it can be used at other sites with similar buried chemical weapons.