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DE SOTO – The former site of the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant is still set to be cleaned up completely by 2028, but some area residents are concerned about hazardous waste and groundwater.
Ian Thomas, project manager for the cleanup, presented updates on the clean-up efforts during a public meeting at De Soto City Hall on Wednesday night.
Originally, the ammunition plant was the world’s largest powder and propellant plant and provided ammunition for World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Some of the land deemed clean is now in the hands of Panasonic, and will eventually house the battery factory set to open in 2025.
The over 9,000 acres of land were transferred to the Sunflower Redevelopment LLC in 2005. In 2015, the Army became responsible for the site’s cleanup and has since given out 14 contracts totaling over $200 million to further the remediation efforts of the soil and water.
More than 3,000 of those acres were considered clean after the closure of the plant, and the other 5,000 were considered potential risks and needed decontamination to be safe.
The remediation and decontamination of the 97 sites on the property havebeen underway for over seven years. As of now, 19 sites have been classified as clean with no further action needed. Another 14 sites are awaiting approval by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment before they can receive the same classification. The other 62 sites are in various stages, and continue to be worked on.
Some attendees questioned the safety of rezoning the area into residential property once the Army’s process is done and the land is sold.
“Sunflower was used for the production of ammunition powder, propellent, so that’s an industrial use so the expectation is you clean it up to industrial levels and then whatever comes in behind it would be similar industrial commercial use, not necessarily residential,” Thomas said.
Ultimately, most of the land will be cleaned to an industrial commercial standard, but some of the land could be cleaned to the residential standard, Thomas said. He said the permit from Kansas requires different sections be cleaned to different standards.
Another community member questioned how much work the Army had done on the groundwater and cited concerns about its contamination.
“Once we are complete with cleanup of the soil, we will get after the groundwater issue,” Thomas said. “We have started to do that work. We have a conceptual site model that was built by one of the contractors, and we’ll use that to do the investigation as we go forward.”
Thomas said the water is not usable, but that the Army would make sure all hazardous material was removed from the nearby streams and rivers after the soil is completely clean.
Marie and Mark Ferguson, who attended the meeting, are building a home in Eudora and wanted to learn more about what was happening at the former site.
“We want to just kind of get an idea of who our neighbors are,” Mark Ferguson said.
“The fact that they were building ammunition things here and that is a hazardous waste, [We are] just curious as to how they are coming along on reclaiming that land,” Marie Ferguson said.
De Soto residents Mike and Toni Caldwell attended the meeting to make sure they were informed about the plant and to voice concerns about further growth and development.
“This all went on while I was living here, and I didn’t know much about it,” Mike Caldwell said.
“Growth is inevitable, but I would’ve hoped we would have had some growth that was a little smaller,” Toni Caldwell said.
Even after cleanup is done, the Army will remain responsible for periodically checking the area for contamination to ensure no toxic material spreads.
The Army plans to hold public meetings annually, and will try again to form a Restoration Advisory Board in January or February.
The board, which failed to gain enough interest last year, would discuss potential concerns and questions with the remediation efforts. When the Army solicits residents who want to join next year, they will have the opportunity to stay up to date on the former plant’s process.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
