There are so many rumors about the amount of contamination at KSAAP that many people envision it as the next Superfund site.
Here in southeast Kansas, visions of Tar Creek (Treece, Kan., and Pitcher, Okla.) pop into one’s mind where acres and acres lie in waste. Worse though than the lead and zinc of those areas, here people think about TNT and explosives lying about everywhere – and then of course there are the rumors of that semi trailer filled with contamination that is buried in the ground somewhere out there. Of course no one knows where or when that occurred.
The definitive word is in though, and the news is amazingly good.
More than 88 percent of the plant has been declared as never contaminated. That’s an amazing 12,093 acres.
One might ask how that is possible since bombs have been made out there for nearly 70 years. The answer is pretty simple though, and logical when a person stops to think it through.
Most of the acreage at the plant was never used in the production or storage of explosives.
More than 12,000 acres is fenced in simply to provide for the safety of outsiders.
When the plant was created in 1941 it was known at the time that a much larger area would have to be purchased than was needed for the actual operation. That additional area is known as “quantity distance arcs” or QDAs. These arcs (circular areas from any one point) represent the maximum distance that debris would fly in the event of an explosion.
Each production area, storage igloo or other concern had a designated arc, depending on the type and quantity of explosive. Arcs could overlap within the grounds but no arc could be outside the boundaries.
Because many of the arcs were quite large, and safety boundaries were built well outside those arcs, the ammunition plant grounds encompasses much more area than was actually needed for production or storage.
That excess space is why so much of the plant grounds can be classified as never contaminated. It never was. In fact, there are agricultural leases over almost all the plant grounds, meaning that most of it is still being farmed or grazed, just as it always has been.
As for the other 12 percent of the acreage that has been contaminated, much of that is from petroleum products or lead-based paints rather than explosives. This means the image of a Superfund site doesn’t even come close to being the reality.
Yes, there is explosive contamination and it exists primarily in the former production areas. But out of the 1,600 acres deemed contaminated, half of that has already been cleaned to industrial or better standards.
And even though it is now clean, the deed to those properties will forever indicate that it was at one time contaminated so that any future owners will know its history – as well as know the Army’s forever responsibility for further clean-up if something was missed.
So just how dirty is dirty?
The reality is that nearly nine of every 10 acres is just as clean as that located outside the fence, and it will be ready for immediate development on the first day of transfer.
Of that which is not clean, a plan for clean-up and the federal funding to see that it happens is being developed. The details of that will be shared as soon as it is finalized.
Article taken from the Great Plains Development newsletter.