Client:
U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Huntsville Center

Estimated
Constructed Value:
$2 billion

Parsons' Contract Value:
$323 million

Project Duration:
1986—2005

Parsons Responsibilities:
Criteria
development;
facility and process
systems designs;
reliability, availability,
and maintainability (RAM) analyses; safety and fire risk analyses; human factors engineering;
life-cycle cost
modeling; technical support services
during construction,
equipment
procurement, installation,
and startup;
scale models;
construction
cost estimates;
programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement
(EIS) and
permitting support;
configuration
control; and
interface management

In the 1970s, the U.S. Army began extensive studies to assess the safest method of destroying chemical weapons. In order to protect public health and the environment, in 1985 Congress mandated that the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP) dispose of all lethal chemical weapons and agents currently stockpiled in the continental United States. Construction began on a Parsons-designed prototype full-scale chemical weapons incinerator at Johnston Island in the South Pacific Ocean.

Place mouse over map to find the locations of the Parsons CSDP sites around the United States.

In 1997, the United States ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, which by June 2003 had been signed by 153 nations. The treaty prohibits development, production, stockpiling, and the use of chemical weapons. It also commits the parties to destroy the chemical warfare materiel in an environmentally safe manner by April 2007.

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (JACADS), Pacific Ocean

The chemical warfare agents stored at eight sites are among the most hazardous chemicals known. The CSDP is destroying both nerve and blister agents at facilities in Tooele, Pine Bluff, Umatilla, and Anniston. The estimated constructed value of each facility is between $300 and $400 million.

• CTDF, a $30 million Parsons-designed training facility, was completed in 1991.
• TOCDF began operations in 1996.
• ANCDF began operations in August 2003.
• UMCDF construction completed in August 2001, operation expected early 2004.
• PBCDF construction completed in December 2002, operations expected late 2004.

Chemical munitions are transported within the sites in protective overpack containers designed to provide shock, fire, and agent-containment protection. The containers are queued in a 15,000-sq-ft Container Handling Building (CHB) and are then transported to the Munitions Demilitarization Building (MDB) by a charge car in an enclosed 200-ft-long passageway. After unpacking manually, processing within the 85,000-sq-ft MDB is fully automated and is controlled by 13 distributed and interlinked automated control processors. Control supervision and operator intervention are provided in a state-of-the-art control room equipped with multiple operator consoles, a system status monitoring display, and a computerized data acquisition and reporting system.

To contain agent vapor, a cascading, negative-pressure system directs airflow through four hazard zones from agent-free areas to the most contaminated area. Ventilation exhaust is passed through a bank of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) and carbon filter units. Liquids are contained by both primary and secondary features, including lined and monitored sumps conforming to the Army’s agent processing standards and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements for hazardous materials. Energetic materials are processed in blast containment rooms. Monitoring and control systems provide safe plant shutdown, if necessary. Redundant uninterruptible power systems and emergency power generators protect critical systems. Pollution abatement systems are provided for furnace exhaust gas streams to ensure that the RCRA permit conditions are met.

Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF), Utah

Parsons’ document control makes extensive use of computerized information management systems, including an imaging system that contains more than 2 million pages of correspondence, master equipment list, cost and estimating data, and drawing status. The CSDP also maintains an extensive database for lessons learned and contractual actions.

Parsons’ technical services are being provided during construction and startup at each chemical agent disposal site. These services include design support, vendor drawing review, preparation of installation drawings, construction support, preparation of generic operations and maintenance manuals, and the updating of drawings to as-built conditions.

Parsons prepared construction cost estimates for each facility, using the CACES and MCACES computerized cost estimating system. Parsons also developed user interface for MCACES Gold, which provides the estimators with the capability to tie material takeoff data directly to the drawing from which it was derived and to the work breakdown structure element on which it will be used.

Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF), Oregon Overall site perspective, left; near completion of construction, right.

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences continued to endorse incineration as a safe destruction technology for chemical weapons because incinerators at Johnston Island and Tooele easily met and exceeded regulatory standards for hazardous emissions. However, perceptions of risks associated with smokestack emissions persisted among some environmental groups. Opposition to incineration and pursuance of alternative technologies have produced major modifications to the program. As a result, four former CSDP sites (in Aberdeen, Maryland; Newport Indiana; Pueblo, Colorado; and Blue Grass, Kentucky) were taken out of the CSDP incineration program and are being designed to operate using alternative technologies. However, the four remaining incinerator facilities that are part of the CSDP will dispose of more than 80% of the chemical weapons.

On August 10, 2003, the Anniston, Alabama, site began destroying its chemical weapons. Nearly 700,000 munitions weighing 2,254 tons have been stored at the Anniston site for more than 40 years. The facility near Umatilla, Oregon, is expected to begin destroying munitions early next year, and the Pine Bluff, Arkansas, facility is expected to start destroying weapons in late 2004.

In December 1996, Parsons was the first engineering company to receive certification from the U.S. Army under its Contractor Performance Certification Program (CP)² for design and development. This certification was awarded to Parsons in recognition of our superior work on the CSDP. The (CP)² certification, which evaluates design process controls, customer satisfaction, and management, exceeds the requirements of the international ISO 9000 quality management system used in the private sector.

Back