Pine Bluff Commercial
October 9, 2003

OFFICIALS DISCUSS CHEMICAL DISPOSAL

By Scott Loftis/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

For the second time this year, officials involved with the destruction of binary chemical weapons stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal were on hand Wednesday to discuss the process.

The binary precursor chemicals methylphosphonyl diflouride and diisopropylaminoethyl methyl phosphonite -- better known as DF and QL, respectively -- were designed to be mixed on the battlefield with other chemicals to produce lethal nerve agents. The U.S. built facilities at the Arsenal to produce the precursor chemicals.

But those facilities were shut down in 1991, and now the United States is scheduled to destroy the buildings and the chemicals they produced under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The CWC is a multilateral agreement in which the U.S. and other countries pledged to destroy their chemical weapons by 2007.

William Myers, the nonstockpile chemical materiel binary project officer who delivered a presentation during Wednesday's meeting, stressed that unlike other provisions of the CWC there is no possibility of extending the deadline for destroying the binary precursor chemicals and facilities.

The chemicals will be destroyed by mixing them with hot water in a process called hydrolysis. The containers in which they are stored will be shredded and transported to an off-site landfill.

Wednesday's meeting drew a sparse crowd. Bill Brankowitz, a deputy product manager for nonstockpile chemical materiel, referred to the Arsenal's long history and said "I would hope that what we're seeing here is not disinterest, but a certain level of confidence."