Operation Red Hat - Storage and Demilitarization

Storage and Demilitarization

In 1971 the US Army began using 41 acres of Johnston Island for chemical weapons storage in bunkers also known as the Red Hat Area. These weapons included nerve and blister agents contained in rockets, artillery shells, bombs, mines, and one-ton (900 kg) containers. Prior to the beginning of destruction operations, Johnston Atoll held about 6.6 percent of the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons.

Chemical weapons were stockpiled on Johnston Atoll beginning in 1971, including weapons transferred from Okinawa during the 1971 Operation Red Hat. Some of the other weapons stored at the site were shipped from U.S. stockpiles in Germany in 1990. These shipments followed a 1986 agreement between the U.S. and Germany to move the munitions.

Merchant ships carrying the munitions left Germany under Operation Python and Operation Steel Box in October 1990 and arrived at Johnston Island November 6, 1990. Although the ships were unloaded within nine days, the unpacking and storing of munitions continued into 1991. The remainder of the chemical weapons were a small number of World War II era weapons shipped from the Solomon Islands." In 1985 the U.S. Congress mandated that all chemical weapons stockpiled at Johnston Atoll, mostly mustard and nerve agents, be destroyed.

All munitions on Johnston island were destroyed by the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) which was the first demonstration full-scale demilitarization plant built since the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention by the United States.

The first weapon disposal took place on June 30, 1990. Transition from the testing phase to full-scale operations began in May 1993, and in August full-scale operations began. Twice, in 1993 and 1994, the facility had to be evacuated because of hurricanes; operations were delayed for as long as 70 days during these periods.

On December 9, 1993, a spill of about 500 pounds (226 kg) of Sarin (Agent GB) occurred inside the Munitions Demilitarization Building (MDB). There was no agent migration outside the building and the contingency plan was not activated. The facility suspended processing of munitions until investigation of the incident was satisfactorily completed.

In August 1998, EPA approved modification of a U.S. Army permit for the creation of a temporary storage area at the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) on Johnston Island. The action allowed the transfer of about 50,000 gallons (189 kL) of hazardous wastewater stored in 244 old and corroded single-sided one-ton capacity containers into safer double-walled one-ton capacity cylindrical containers. The old wastewater containers originally came from Okinawa, Japan, which the Army had stored outside on Johnston Island since 1971. EPA was concerned that without action, the old containers would have degraded and begun leaking their contents.

241 of the old wastewater containers held decontamination solution that was used to clean containers that were filled with nerve (GB and VX) and mustard blister agents (HD)as well as components of several other older chemical agents that had been mislabeled or were otherwise not expected to be present. The other containers held contaminated sand, laboratory waste or other contaminated wastes.

On November 29, 2000, the last of the chemical weapons at JACADS were disposed of. The last disposal operation destroyed more than 13,000 VX filled land mines. Two years after the last chemical weapons at JACADS were destroyed, the Army submitted the plan to dismantle the facility to the EPA; it was approved in September 2002.

Demolition on the 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) facility, home to the incinerators, laboratories and control rooms, took place from August–October 2003 and in November 2003, a plaque dedicated to JACADS personnel was placed on Johnston Island.