The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PEO ACWA) is responsible for the safe and environmentally sound destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky and the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot, Colorado. In 1996, the United States Congress established the ACWA program to test and demonstrate alternative technologies to baseline incineration for the destruction of chemical weapons. The ACWA program oversaw the design and construction of the two chemical weapons destruction pilot plants – the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) in Colorado, and the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) in Kentucky. Today, PCAPP and BGCAPP are in the operations phase. PEO ACWA will oversee both plants through operations and closure. History of chemical weapons in the United States The production of chemical weapons in the United States began during World War I, after their first large-scale use against Allied troops in Belgium. The United States' chemical weapons stockpile was produced as a deterrent against the creation and use of such weapons against the U.S. Chemical weapons include blister agents that were designed to inflict chemical burns or blister the skin and nerve agents that were designed to impair the nervous system. Production ceased in 1968. In 1985, with the rise of international dialogue concerning the effects of chemical warfare, the United States started to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons. In 1997, the United States formally agreed to destroy its stockpile by ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention. The international treaty bans the use of all chemical weapons and aims to eliminate them throughout the world. Under the management of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, now known as the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA), chemical stockpile destruction was completed at Army installations near Anniston, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Newport, Indiana; Aberdeen, Maryland; Umatilla, Oregon; Tooele, Utah; and on Johnston Atoll, an island in the Pacific. CMA remains responsible for storage management of the chemical stockpiles at sites near Pueblo, Colorado, and Richmond, Kentucky, whereas PEO ACWA is responsible for stockpile destruction at these sites. “Assembled” chemical weapons refer to weapons that contain a chemical agent in addition to fuzes, explosives, propellant, shipping and firing tubes and packaging materials. Examples include rockets, projectiles and bombs. History of PEO ACWA 1990s In 1996, Congress established the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program to safely test and demonstrate at least two alternative