This website is part of the active efforts employed by the United States Department of the Navy (Navy) to provide accurate, timely, and comprehensive information on the Environmental Restoration Program (ERP) at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) in Mineral County, West Virginia.
ABL is located in Mineral County in the northeastern part of West Virginia, approximately 10 miles southwest of Cumberland, Maryland along the West Virginia and Maryland border.
ABL was constructed in 1942 for the Army and used as a loading plant for machine gun ammunition. The Navy took ownership of the facility in 1945. Since 1943, ABL has been used primarily for the research, development, production, and testing of solid propellants and motors for ammunition, rockets, and armaments. The facility was initially comprised of two operating plants and the Plant 1 portion was added to the National Priorities List (NPL) on May 31, 1994. The NPL is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) list of the high-priority hazardous waste sites. Currently, the Plant 1 portion of ABL is a Government-Owned Contractor-Operated facility.
The responsibility for funding and carrying out environmental restoration at ABL rests with the Navy. The Navy is completing these activities through the Navy’s ERP in coordination with EPA and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, under a Federal Facility Agreement, which was finalized in January 1998.
The ERP is being conducted in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act and other applicable federal and state environmental regulations and requirements. Thirteen ERP sites have been identified for evaluation at ABL based on assessments and investigations. Six sites (Sites 1, 5, 10, 11, 12, and 13) are currently active in the ABL ERP. The other seven sites were closed out with no further action by the ABL ERP Partnering Team (made up of the Navy, EPA and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection representatives) following desktop audits or studies. The currently active sites are described on the Site Description page of this website.
A Site Management Plan (SMP) for ABL is updated annually and serves as a management tool for the Navy, EPA, and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to plan, schedule, and set priorities for environmental remedial response activities to be conducted at ABL. A comprehensive list of sites, solid waste management units, and Areas of Concern at Plant 1 that have been identified their status, and anticipated additional activities may be found in the Site Management Plan, which is available in the Administrative Record File for ABL.
The sixth statutory Five-Year Review for ABL Plant 1 was signed by the Navy on Sept. 20, 2023. The purpose of the Five-Year Review is to evaluate the effectiveness of remedies in place and ensure that the remedies are providing adequate protection of human health and the environment. the sixth Five-Year Review Report is available in the Administrative Record File for ABL.