Section 17. EXPLOSIVE WASTES
A CASE STUDY FOR THE TREATMENT OF AN
EXPLOSIVES WASTEWATER FROM AN
ARMY AMMUNITIONS PLANT
Sam E. Shelby, Jr., Principal Engineer
Perry W. Lankford, Vice President
AWARE, Inc.
Nashville, Tennessee 37027
Richard W. McCollum, Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Kansas City, Missouri 64106
INTRODUCTION
Contaminated wastewaters are generated from the production, handling and loading of explosive
materials in Army Ammunition Plants (AAP). Characteristically, these are small volume wastewaters
but are often contaminated with live explosive materials and other explosive constituents such as
heavy metals, organics, and nitrates. Historically the treatment approach for these wastes has been
focused on decomposing or desensitizing the explosives compounds; however, due to the small waste
volumes, little additional treatment for other parameters has been provided. Recently, advanced technologies, such as ultraviolet light catalyzed chemical oxidation processes, have been studied for treatment of explosives plant wastewaters. This paper summarizes a case history for the development of
a treatment approach for explosives wastewaters from a Midwestern AAP.
DESCRIPTION OF AAP EXPLOSIVES WASTEWATER SOURCES
The subject wastewater is from a production area of a load/assemble/pack (LAP) plant, generating wastewaters from explosives preparation, drying, handling, loading, and cleaning operations,
and the production of detonators and lead cups at initiator production facilities. The product detonators are used as initiators in large ordnance equipment such as howitzer shells and grenades.
Wastewater is produced from equipment washout, and floor, utensil, and counter washdowns. Additional wastewater is produced from discharge of vacuum system aspirator bottles on detonator
loading machines.
Because of the explosive nature of the compounds, production operations are separated by long
enclosed walkways and structured as non-mechanized assembly lines. The layout of the subject production area and the location of the eighteen wastewater collection sumps are presented in Figure 1.
A review of other facilities indicated that such a layout may be considered typical.
Production in this area is structured on an assembly line basis. Raw materials (live explosives)
are received, unpacked, and prepared for use on the back lines and moved to the front lines for final
processing into detonators. The wastewaters generated at the individual production stations can be
expected to differ depending on the nature of the specific production operation.
Explosive contaminants from this production operation include cyclonite (RDX), lead azide, lead
styphnate, barium nitrate, antimony sulfide, and tetracene. The chemical formulas for these compounds are as follows:
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