Camp Minden

The Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, formerly known as the Louisiana Ordnance Plant or as The Shell Plant, is an inactive plant to load, assemble and pack ammunitions items. During production from 1942 to 1994, the Army disposed of untreated explosives-laden wastewater in on-site lagoons, contaminating soil, sediments and groundwater with hazardous chemicals. It is a State of Louisiana government-owned, Louisiana Military Department operated facility located off U.S. Highway 80 in Webster Parish near Doyline between Minden and Bossier City, Louisiana. The former LAAP was turned over to the State of Louisiana from the federal government in 2005 and is now known as Camp Minden Training Site, a training center for the Louisiana Army National Guard. LAAP and Camp Minden have become interchangeable terms, with most references to Camp Minden.

Environmental contamination

On March 31, 1989, LAAP was listed as a Superfund site on the National Priorities List. The United States Environmental Protection Agency found that the ground water was contaminated by explosive wastes including cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) and trinitrotoluene (TNT).

On August 24, 2006, an explosion of the Explo Systems, Inc., site leased at Camp Minden, where bombs were disassembled and recycled led to the evacuation of six hundred pupils nearby but caused no injuries or fatalities.

In October 2012, a large explosion of 15 million pounds of M6 propellant, of the Explo Systems, Inc. site, rocked Camp Minden. The explosion shattered windows 4 miles away and created a 7,000-foot mushroom cloud contaminating the area.

In December 2012, police began to remove 2,700 tons of explosives haphazardly stashed in warehouses and in open air from the Explo Systems site leading to evacuations from nearby Doyline. After materials had been relocated into buildings within Camp Minden, Explo Systems, Inc. filed bankruptcy, and in August 2013 abandoned the materialsCamp Minden, Site Background
EPA, n.d. accessed 24 July 2017

M6 propellant disposal

In October, 2014 EPA, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Army agreed to dispose of explosive M6 propellant by "open burn", in "prepared trays containing a shallow layer of the material, shas been used in other cleanups."Pat Culverhous
M6 propellant to be removed by open burn
''Minden Press-Herald''November 14, 2014, Specht Newspapers, Inc.

In May 2015, EPA in conjunction with a Citizens' Advisory Group announced, that a contained burn system in the form of an incinerator would be used. The plan was to dismantle the incinerator and remove it after burns would be finished. To oversee the cleanup, the EPA charged about $8 million on top of $1.2 million which the state of Louisiana had already paid. In June 2015, Explo systems executives asked a state judge to throw out charges, because M6 was not classified as explosive in Louisiana. The Army intended to dispose of the explosives through "open burns".

Eventually a private facility in Colfax, Louisiana 95 miles south, operated by Clean Harbors was chosen. It is "the only commercial facility in the nation allowed to burn explosives and munitions waste with no environmental emissions controls."Abrahm Lustgarde
Kaboom Town. The U.S. military burns millions of pounds of munitions in a tiny, African-American corner of Louisiana.
ProPublica, July 21, 2017

References

External links

Superfund Site: Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, Doyline, LA
EPA, n.d.
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United States Army arsenals
Buildings and structures in Webster Parish, Louisiana
Historic American Engineering Record in Louisiana
Minden, Louisiana
Military installations in Louisiana
Military Superfund sites
United States Army arsenals during World War II
Superfund sites in Louisiana