Officials at the Blue Grass Army Depot are making plans to demolish a building once used to decontaminate land mines. It was in operation from 1974 until about 2015. The TNT Washout Facility used a high-temperature closed-loop process to treat the mines. Currently, the corrective measures plan is available for public comment. Amesh Melarkode is the environmental division chief at the Depot. Melarkode said the actual teardown of the building and associated tank farm may not come for some time. He noted that’s an Army decision.
“Somebody that’s got even a worse case than us, in terms of contamination, obviously the preference would go there first. So, it could be as quickly as in two years, it could be as late as six or seven years,” said Melarkode.
Melarkode said the exact method of facility destruction is still to be determined. Depot Restoration Program Manager Daniel Walker said the washout complex is central to the army installation and so its teardown is not anticipated to be disruptive to area residents. The public comment period ends on March eighth.