Environmental Progress
Letterkenny was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority List (Superfund) in 1987.
Ammonium Perchlorate Rocket Motor Thermal Destruction (ARMD) Facility
The waste disposal/demilitarization of energetic assets (i.e. rocket and missile motors) has been an issue
for many years. In the past, the open burn and open detonation processes were the only viable options
for most of the unserviceable ordnance stockpile. The motors’ propellant is a formulation that relies
heavily on ammonium perchlorate (AD), a mineral salt, that acts as an oxidizer. And virtually all
tactical rocket and missile motors manufactured in the past 40 years utilized AD to create a composite propellant.
Unfortunately, the chemical properties of AD composite propellants presented a significant challenge when being
demilitarized via open burning. Perchlorate is extremely water-soluble and can persist for decades in groundwater
and surface water, under typical conditions. Although perchlorate is naturally occurring in many locations, rocket
motor manufacturing and demilitarization sites can be sources of contamination. Perchlorate has remained a concern
due to uncertainties about its toxicity. LEMC’s ARMD facility addresses this concern in the demilitarization process
by providing an environmentally sensible alternative.
When the LEMC ARMD facility began full scale operations in 2019, the demilitarization landscape changed considerably.
By utilizing a confined-burn system and capturing the by-products of rocket motor exhaust before the gas reaches the
atmosphere, LEMC has reduced pollution during the process by more than 98 per cent.