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GCAGS Transactions

Abstract


Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions
Vol. 51 (2001), Pages 105-105

Abstract: Geology of Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, Minden, Louisiana

Danny W. Harrelson, Mansour Zakikhani, Judith C. Pennington, William Sniffen, Maureen K. Corcoran

ABSTRACT

Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant is a 14,974-acre government-owned contractor operated facility located 22 miles east of Shreveport, Louisiana. The primary mission of the plant constructed in 1941-42 was to load, assemble and package ammunition items, manufacture ammunition metal parts and provide associated support functions for ammunition production. Eight ammunition lines and one ammunition nitrate graining plant were in intermittent operation between 1945 and 1974 when most of the plant's operations ceased. In August of 1997, five contractors were bidding to resume limited production of black powder products at a single load line (Y line).

Regionally, the plant lies within the North Louisiana Syncline, a subsurface structural feature located to the east of the Sabine Uplift and west of the Monroe-Sharkey Platform. The stratigraphy of the plant reflects the Syncline by anomalous thickening or thinning of lithologic units including surficial Pleistocene deposits and older Eocene, Cretaceous and Jurassic formations found in the subsurface. Small uplifts exist in the area and significantly modify the local structural geology (i. e., formation dip) and the groundwater flow regime.

The plant was placed on the National Priorities List in 1989 due to contamination caused by past disposal of explosives-laden wastewater in 16 unlined surface impoundment's located in an area designated as Area P. An interim remedial action consisting of draining and treating wastewater and soil incineration was initiated in 1988 and completed in 1994. Long term remediation continues and consists of ground water monitoring, monitored natural attenuation and numerical modeling.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND ASSOCIATED FOOTNOTES

(1) U. S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS 39180

(2) Consulting Geologist, Haughton, LA 71037

Copyright © 2002 by The Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies