![]() They were able to halt the planned incineration plant, and then, with help from lawmakers, prompted the Army to submit alternative methods to burning the weapons.Ĭraig Williams, who became the leading voice of the community opposition and later a partner with political leadership and the military, said residents were concerned about potential toxic pollution from burning the deadly chemical agents. ![]() In the 1980s, the community around Kentucky’s Blue Grass Army Depot rose up in opposition to the Army’s initial plan to incinerate the plant’s 520 tons of chemical weapons, leading to a decades-long battle over how they would be disposed of. Despite their use being subsequently banned by the Geneva Convention, countries continued to stockpile the weapons until the treaty calling for their destruction. is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven’t joined the agreement, military experts say.Ĭhemical weapons were first used in modern warfare in World War I, where they were estimated have killed at least 100,000. The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with GB nerve agent – a deadly toxin also known as sarin – that have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.īy destroying the munitions, the U.S. 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. ![]() It’s also a defining moment for arms control efforts worldwide. ![]() The weapons’ destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month.
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