Savanna Army Depot, Illinois

Until its closure in 2000, the Savanna Army Depot was one of the largest U.S. Army munitions depots in the U.S. From 1917 until 1995, the U.S. Army used the site to test artillery and ammunition, to store as well as to destroy obsolete ordnance, and to refurbish older bombs and shells. These activities resulted in the contamination of groundwater, soils, and surface water with dangerous chemicals in sufficient quanities, to qualify the depot as a Superfund cleanup site. Remediation is ongoing. Some of the depot's operations have been moved to McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, in McAlester, Oklahoma. In 2003, the Department of Defense transferred 9,404 acres of the site in order to create the Lost Mound Unit of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, which is currently being managed by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.