Pine Bluff Arsenal

Base Background

The Army established Pine Bluff Arsenal on November 2, 1941, as the Chemical Warfare Arsenal, renaming it the following year. The facility built magnesium and thermite incendiary munitions for World War II before expanding into chemical warfare agent production, and in February 1942 became one of the nation’s storage depots for chemical stockpile munitions. Starting in 1953, the arsenal also produced biological warfare agents, including weaponized anthrax spores, until President Nixon’s 1969 ban on U.S. biological weapons production ended that mission.

For nearly 70 years, the arsenal safely stored roughly 3,850 tons of chemical warfare agents, about 12 percent of the nation’s original chemical weapons stockpile, including sarin- and VX-filled rockets and landmines and mustard agent in ton containers. The Army destroyed the entire stockpile by incineration between 2005 and 2010. Today, Pine Bluff Arsenal remains an active Army production facility, primarily making smoke, riot-control, and incendiary munitions, white and red phosphorus munitions, and chemical and biological defense equipment.

Toxic Exposure at Pine Bluff Arsenal

Decades of industrial operations at the arsenal have contaminated on-site waterways with certain chemicals, and the base is separately undergoing a nationwide Department of Defense assessment for firefighting-foam chemicals.

PFAS Contamination

Pine Bluff Arsenal is undergoing the Department of Defense’s PFAS assessment process, tied to decades of firefighting-foam use. The Army completed a formal Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection for PFAS at the arsenal in November 2021, and as of the Army’s own current program status, the installation has moved into the next step: a remedial investigation planned under CERCLA.

DDT and Chlorinated Benzene Compounds in Phillips Creek

Arkansas’s environmental regulator has directly tied contamination from the arsenal to DDT and its breakdown products DDD and DDE showing up in sediment and fish tissue in Phillips Creek and the nearby Arkansas River at levels exceeding both state cleanup screening levels and the FDA’s fish consumption advisory level. In 2021, arsenal staff repeatedly discovered a dense, oily contaminant entering Phillips Creek; lab testing of that material found extremely high concentrations of DDT along with chlorobenzene, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene. The state ordered the Army to investigate and control the source, and Pine Bluff Arsenal is now required to complete a formal RCRA Facility Investigation of the area.

Getting Compensation

Generations of workers at Pine Bluff Arsenal handled hazardous materials long before today’s safety standards existed, and illnesses linked to that kind of exposure frequently don’t surface until decades later. A veteran who served at Pine Bluff Arsenal and later developed a condition connected to this contamination, or a survivor pursuing a claim in their name, could still be owed compensation now.

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the health conditions tied to the specific chemicals found at Pine Bluff Arsenal. Reach out for a free evaluation of your claim: we take cases on contingency, so you pay nothing unless we win. Our VA-accredited lawyers concentrate exclusively on VA disability law and have years of experience winning appeals for previously denied veterans and their survivors.