The U.S. Army and Army Corps of Engineers is just hundreds of acres away — out of nearly 9,000 acres total — from the long-awaited finish line for its clean up efforts at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in western Johnson County.
The massive site near De Soto was once home to a factory that produced gunpowder for artillery shells in World War II and rocket propellants during the Vietnam War. The site also had storage facilities, powerhouses, landfills, burning grounds and waste treatment facilities. It shut down in the early 1990s but left behind a sludge of contaminants like lead, arsenic and nitroglycerin that called for major cleanup efforts.
While visions for parks and private development have come forward over the years — including when private developer Sunflower Redevelopment LLC purchased the site in 2005 — federal funding shortages and ongoing remediation efforts have pushed those dreams down the road…