This page updated 6 Nov. 2007

Facility-wide Activities
Safety is a primary concern of the cleanup program at FWDA. In the past, the process of destroying unusable munitions threw unexploded ordnance (UXO) outside of the demolition areas. Today’s cleanup includes trained experts who survey areas where UXO may be.  When they locate any potentially hazardous munitions, the experts remove or destroy them as appropriate. Recent UXO surveys were in the Open Burning and Open Detonation (OB/OD) Area of Parcel 3. Surveys also included arroyos, dry creek beds, where flash floods may have washed UXO.

Groundwater samples are taken from wells across the facility each year to test for contamination and to be sure that groundwater is safe to drink.

Parcel 3 - Open Burning and Open Detonation (OB/OD) Area
Cleanup activities in 2007 in the OB/OD area include finding and removing UXO and constructing a fence to keep people away from areas that may have UXO.

Parcel 21 - TNT Beds, Deactivation Furnace, Other Buildings
In 2007, the Army is drawing up a work plan of the additional studies and action needed to cleanup Parcel 21.

Parcel 11 - Storage yard; RR repair shop; waste treatment
The Army is also preparing a  work plan for the cleanup of Parcel 11 in 2007.

Photos of Previous Activities Click on images for larger view in new window.

Environmental specialists prepare to measure groundwater levels in well FW27 (January 28, 2008).

Steve Martin, Steve Smith, and Stephen (Eric) Kirwan in front of Building 1, home to the Fort Wingate Information Repository and staff offices.

Mike Scoville, Steve Martin, and Doc Holladay discuss global positioning system (GPS) locations on AOC 78

March 5, 2008 BRAC Cleanup Team Meeting in Building 1 at Ft. Wingate.

Doc Holladay and Jay Newman discuss disposal of UXO at Fort Wingate. Also pictured are Mark Patterson, Mike Scoville, Rick Hockett, Mike Kipp, and David Henry

The Army sent ordnance specialists to survey a former open storage site at Fort Wingate. Here they are locating any potentially hazardous munitions.

Ordnance specialists use technical survey equipment to conduct searches of arroyos, dry creek beds, where flash floods may have washed UXO.

This team of ordnance and environmental specialists are conducting survey of another arroyo, looking for UXO.

This natural arroyo is a water course that conducts a temporary water flow in the New Mexico desert terrain of FWDA.  Because it is the primary drainage in a 100-year storm event for an area of forty acres or more, scientists search it for possible UXO.

Geophysical and environmental specialists team up to look for ordnance items in Parcel 3’s Open Burning and Open Detonation (OB/OD) Area.

Scientists collect geophysical data with magnetometers. A magnetometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the instrument.

Magnetometers are used in geophysical surveys to find deposits of iron. They measure the magnetic field variations caused by underground objects, like UXOs.