Remedial Investigation, Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant

Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant is a former ammunition plant that produced artillery shells, mines, bombs, and rockets during WWII and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. In the early 1980s, the Army discovered that groundwater extending about four miles downgradient was contaminated by explosives compounds originating from the facility. ATI performed remedial investigation activities for seven sites within five Government-owned tracts of land that included establishing a background dataset, defining the nature and extent of contamination in soil and/or groundwater, and completing human health and ecological risk assessments for each of the sites. Fieldwork to complete the RI included advancing soil borings, installing monitoring wells to collect groundwater samples, and digital geophysical mapping. The analytical results of historical and current soil and groundwater data were used to quantitatively evaluate potential risks to human health under current and potential future land uses. The soil data were also used to assess potential risks to plants, invertebrates, birds, and mammals that could live and forage in the investigation areas.

As the prime contractor on this USACE project, ATI managed the administrative and technical aspects of the project. Among other activities, the technical portion of the project required digital geophysical mapping; defining the extent of HTRW and MEC/MC contaminants; waste characterization analyses; and human health and ecological risk assessments.