technologies to the baseline incineration process for the destruction of the nation’s stockpile of assembled chemical weapons. ACWA program leaders implemented an open participatory public process called the ACWA Dialogue in 1997 to engage stakeholders in the program’s decision-making process. Beginning in 1999, Congress authorized ACWA to manage the development and pilot-scale testing of these new technologies. Public Law 106-79 stated that funds would not be allocated for a chemical weapons disposal facility at Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) until the Secretary of Defense certified demonstration of six incineration alternatives. ACWA successfully demonstrated three alternative technologies that year. 2000-2009 In 2000, ACWA successfully demonstrated three additional alternative technologies. In total, four of the six demonstrated technologies were found viable for pilot testing. Via Public Law 106-398, the Department of Defense had to consider incineration and any demonstrated ACWA technologies for disposal of the Colorado stockpile. Two years later, in 2002, ACWA was assigned responsibility for the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpiles in both Colorado and Kentucky. With community input garnered through the 1997 ACWA Dialogue process, the Department of Defense selected destruction technologies for both sites. Neutralization followed by biotreatment was selected for the Colorado stockpile, and neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation was selected for the Kentucky stockpile. Once ACWA took on the responsibility for the chemical weapons demilitarization process in Kentucky and Colorado, the organization’s focus shifted from assessing chemical weapon disposal technologies to implementing full-scale pilot testing. In 2003, ACWA changed its name from Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment to Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives to reflect its new program goals. In 2004, ACWA reached a significant milestone with the groundbreaking for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) which marked the start of plant construction in Colorado. In 2006, the program reached another milestone, the groundbreaking for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP), marking the start of construction in Kentucky. In an April 2006 letter to Congress, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld affirmed there were no options by which the U.S. can destroy 100 percent of its remaining national chemical stockpile by the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty deadline of Apr. 29, 2012. In 2007, in response to that letter, Congress enacted legislation (Public Law 104-208 and 110-181) mandating the destruction of the remaining U.S. national chemical stockpile by the Chemical Weapons Convention deadline of Apr. 29, 2012, but in no circumstances later than Dec. 31,