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EPA to Hold Public Availability Session Regarding Macon Naval Ordnance Plant Site, Macon, GA

Release Date: 03/06/2012
Contact Information: James Pinkney, (404) 562-9183, [email protected]

(ATLANTA – March 6, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold an availability session on Thursday, March 8, 2012 regarding the Macon Naval Ordnance Plant (MNOP) site in Macon, GA. The availability session will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Allied Industrial Park, Building 102, 600 Guy Paine Rd., Macon, GA to discuss potential proposal of the Site to the National Priorities List (NPL). EPA and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD) will provide information about the site.

The MNOP was constructed and operated by the Reynolds Corporation before World War II. The Navy, under the U.S. Department of Defense, assumed operations in 1941 and continued to manufacture ordnance until 1965. Ordnance manufactured at the MNOP included flares, small primers, detonators, and other triggering mechanisms. The total area of the MNOP was approximately 433 acres, which extended from Guy Paine Road (north) to Rocky Creek (south).

Structures at the MNOP included numerous buildings, several miles of paved roads, fueling facilities, aboveground storage tanks (AST) and underground storage tanks (UST), solvent storage buildings, explosives storage magazines, a bunker area, a metals plating facility, and a sewage, or wastewater, treatment plant (WWTP).

After it was declared surplus by the Navy, the property was sold in December 1965 to the Maxson Electronics Company (Maxson) of New York. Maxson continued to produce ordnance under contract with the Navy until it sold the property to Allied Chemical Corporation (Allied) in 1973. Allied manufactured automobile seat belts at the site and made beneficial use of all or nearly all of the buildings, USTs and ASTs, and utilities. Allied sold the property in 1980 to the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority (MBCIA), which renamed the property the Allied Industrial Park. MBCIA currently leases or sells buildings as office and warehouse space to various industrial and commercial businesses on the AIP property.

Community members interested in obtaining additional information are encouraged to contact Sherryl A. Lane, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, at (770) 608-1747.

ATTENTION: A media availability session will be held at the Allied Industrial Park, Bldg 102, 600 Guy Paine Rd., Macon, GA from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, 2012. EPA and the GAEPD will be available to answer media questions concerning the potential proposal of the site to the NPL.