Only one contractor will be in charge of winding down operations at Deseret Chemical Depot, which is scheduled to finish destroying the facility’s stockpile of chemical agent in 2012.

Officials from the U.S. Army’s Chemical Materials Agency, the government agency charged with safely storing and destroying the nation’s aging chemical weapons, announced last Thursday that they had made a business decision to have all closure work at Deseret Chemical Depot performed by EG&G Defense Materials. The decision effectively cuts out the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal government agency, which had been handling closure work for DCD.

EG&G will take over closure of the facility’s Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System (CAMDS), a former research and development facility, next spring, according to DCD spokeswoman Alaine Grieser.

“[DCD] will now have one entity to handle all the closures,” Grieser said. “It’s all going to be under one umbrella and make it easier for us.”

Grieser said DCD’s relationship with the Tennessee Valley Authority has always been good, and the change was made to narrow down the number of contractors as complete closure of DCD nears.

Additionally, Grieser said EG&G handled the closure of the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System facility, located on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, in 2000.

“They have some experience in this, and this new contract will just add to it,” Grieser said.

Closure work began at CAMDS in 2006 and includes the dismantling, decontamination and disposal of the equipment and structures used during chemical agent operations.

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF), also located at DCD, is set to complete the disposal of DCD’s chemical weapon stockpile by 2012. Following that completion, TOCDF will also be closed by EG&G.

Grieser said as of June 25, DCD had disposed of 9,744 tons of chemical agent — totaling over 71.6 percent of the facility’s original stockpile.

“We have 3,873 tons left to incinerate, including mustard agent, a small amount of lewsite, a blister agent, and GA nerve agent,” Grieser said.

CAMDS was the first of the military’s chemical weapons disposal facilities in the nation. Many methods of chemical weapons destruction, including neutralization and cryo (freezing agent with liquid nitrogen), are now being used at other facilities throughout the country.

jamieb@tooeletranscript.com