Weldon Spring Ordnance Works
After World War II, over 15,000 acres (61 km2) were transferred to the State of Missouri, including the 6,987-acre (28.28 km2) August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area.
[5] Following a considerable amount of environmental remediation of the facility by the U.S. Army and the Atlas Powder Company, 205 acres (83 ha) of the former ordnance works were transferred to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1955 for construction of the Weldon Spring Uranium Feed Materials Plant, now referred to as the Weldon Spring Chemical Plant.
Uranium processing operations ceased in 1966, and on December 31, 1967, the AEC returned the facility to the Army for use as a defoliant production plant.
The defoliant project was canceled before any process equipment was installed, and the Army transferred 50.65 acres (20.50 ha) of land encompassing the raffinate pits back to the AEC while retaining the Chemical Plant.
The AEC, and subsequently the United States Department of Energy (DOE), managed the site, including the Army-owned Chemical Plant, under caretaker status from 1968 through 1985.
The Army also used the quarry for burning wastes from explosives manufacturing and disposal of TNT-contaminated rubble during operation of the ordnance works.
In 1958, the Army transferred the Weldon Spring Quarry to the Atomic Energy Commission, who used it from 1959 to 1966 as a disposal area for uranium, thorium, and radium residues from the Chemical Plant (both drummed and uncontained) and for disposal of contaminated building rubble, process equipment, and soils from demolition of a uranium processing facility in St.
By 1959, with the majority of the site already transferred out of government hands, 1,655 acres (6.70 km2) was redeveloped as for the U.S. Army Reserve as the Weldon Spring Training Area.
[2] Primary contaminants of concern at the Chemical Plant and surrounding soil include uranium, thorium, radium, and their radioactive decay products.
[2] On July 14, 1989, the United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed adding the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works to the National Priorities List.
