Military

Badger Army Ammunition Plant

Badger AAP is in Sauk County, south central Wisconsin, 35 miles northwest of Madison. The site has 7,354 acres with 1,438 buildings.

Originally called the Badger Ordnance Works, the plant was established in 1941, and production began in January 1943. It produced propellant during World War II, and was placed on standby status after the war.

Badger was reactivated for the Korean War under the management of Liberty Powder Defense Corporation (subsidiary of present-day Olin Corp.). New facilities were completed in 1954-55. During this phase, the plant produced about 286 million pounds of propellant, including the new "Ball Powder." It was again placed in standby status in 1958.

In 1963, it was redesignated Badger Army Ammunition Plant. It was reactivated in January 1966 in support of the Vietnam War. More than 445 million pounds of propellant were produced between 1966 and 1975.

All production ceased in 1975, and the plant is designated as inactive. It is presently under the management of Olin Co. Other tenants of the site are Flambeau Plastic, CENEX, Dairy Forage Research Center, Orbitex, and others.

Established in 1941, Badger Army Ammunition Plant is a government-owned, contractor-operated propellant manufacturing facility located in Sauk County, Wis., 35 miles northwest of Madison. Currently on standby as the "backup" propellant facility in the IOC industrial complex, Badger has facilities to produce large quantities of propellants for artillery, tank cannons and naval guns; ball powder propellant for small and medium caliber ammunition; and grains for the 2.75' rocket system.

In the late 1990s Badger was removing 1,000,000 pounds of nitrocellulose left from the previous operations by conversion to fertilizer that is then land spread at Badger. The operating contractor, Olin Corporation, contracted with Bioremediation Services Inc., in Portland, Ore., to remove and dispose of the nitrocellulose. This was the first time this technology has been used on this scale for the disposal of nitrocellulose. As the Army is faced with the need to demil ammunition, this technology could be used for the disposal of nitrocellulose by conversion to a usable product.

In addition to standby activities, Badger is involved in the remediation Badger Army Ammunition Plant of the facility for environmental problems from former periods of production. Eighty percent of the current funding for the plant is for remediation and the remainder is for standby and support activities. The former open burning site at Badger was closed with soil cover rather than by solidification in 1996, which resulted in significant reduction in remedial costs. Groundwater treatment facilities treating 3,400 gallons of wafer per minute are operating to handle the contamination. The treated water is being used at Badger for all water not suitable for drinking to save the cost of operating deep wells to supply the water. In 1997, a former landfill was closed with a cap and a soil vapor extraction system to remove soil solvent contamination at a former disposal site.