Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) is a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility in northeastern

Independence, Missouri Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro ...

, that was established by

Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remington ...

in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. The facility has remained in continuous operation except for one 5-year period following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Lake City Army Ammunition Plant Lagoon
". ''

National Priorities List The National Priorities List (NPL) is the priority list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanup) financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protec ...

''.

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

. 30 January 2008.Lake City Army Ammunition Plant
. ''GlobalSecurity.org''. As of July 2007, the plant produced nearly 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition per year.Lardner, Richard.

. ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''. 23 July 2007. In addition, Lake City performs small caliber ammunition stockpile reliability testing and has ammunition and weapon testing responsibilities as the NATO National and Regional Test Center. LCAAP is the single largest producer of

small arms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

ammunition for the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

Capabilities

The manufacturing capabilities of the plant include: Small arms cartridges; components such as percussion and electric primer; pyrotechnics; and small caliber ammunition (5.56 mm; 7.62 mm; .50 caliber; and 20 mm). The plant also performs reliability testing on small caliber ammunition (5.56 mm; 7.62 mm; 9 mm, .22 caliber; .45 caliber; and .50 caliber) and demilitarization and disposal of small caliber ammunition and explosives.Information Provided by the Joint Munitions Command

History

LCAAP was established in December 1940 as the Lake City Arsenal, with production beginning in 1941. It was the first of 12 small arms plants run by the Army. The plant was built by

Remington Remington may refer to: Organizations * Remington Arms, American firearms manufacturer * Remington Rand, American computer manufacturer * Remington Products, American manufacturer of shavers and haircare products * Remington College, American c ...

with assistance from DuPont. Remington Arms operated the plant from its inception until 1985, when operations were taken over by the

Olin Corporation Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Olin che ...

. From April 2001, it was operated by

Alliant Techsystems Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) was an American aerospace, defense, and sporting goods company with its headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The company operated in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and other countries. ATK's ...

(ATK), later known as

Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

after a 2015 merger between

Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

and parts of

was acquired by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tech ...

in 2018 and is now known as

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

. Starting in October 2020,

Winchester Ammunition Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Olin che ...

was selected by the US Army to operate and manage the Lake City Plant. An accidental explosion in a primer manufacturing facility at the plant in April 2017 killed one worker and injured four others.Rizzo, Tony.
ATF concludes no crime involved in fatal explosion at Lake City ammunition plant
" ''Kansas City Star''. April 14, 2017.

Facilities

LCAAP is housed on with 458 buildings, 40 igloos and storage capacity of .

Hazardous waste contamination

Historically, LCAAP waste treatment and disposal occurred on-site and relied on unlined lagoons,

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...

s, and burn pits. The plant generated large quantities of potentially hazardous wastes and hazardous substances, including solvents, oils, greases, explosives,

radionuclide A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...

perchlorates A perchlorate is a chemical compound containing the perchlorate ion, . The majority of perchlorates are commercially produced salts. They are mainly used as oxidizers for pyrotechnic devices and to control static electricity in food packaging. Per ...

, and

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as ...

. As a result of the extensive contamination, the site was added to the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

in 1987, and it remains a Superfund site.

References

*Information compiled from https://www.jmc.army.mil/thumbnails/pdfs/2020%20Lake%20City%20AAP%20Fact%20Sheet%2009112020.PDF

External links

* *. Details LCAAP production.
Joint Munitions Command website
* {{Coord, 39, 06, 4, N, 94, 15, 47, W, display=title Ammunition manufacturers Buildings and structures in Independence, Missouri Companies based in Independence, Missouri Historic American Engineering Record in Missouri Military installations in Missouri Military Superfund sites Olin Corporation United States Army arsenals United States Army arsenals during World War II Superfund sites in Missouri Alliant Techsystems