CHEATHAM ANNEX, NAVAL SUPPLY CENTER
The Naval Weapons Station Yorktown – Cheatham Annex Facility (Cheatham Annex) is a 1,579-acre federal facility located outside of Williamsburg, in York County, Virginia. The facility is located adjacent to the York River approximately 15 miles upstream of the Chesapeake Bay. The primary mission of Cheatham Annex is that of a naval supply depot; receiving, storing, packing and shipping materials to military facilities on the east coast and major distribution centers in Europe. Construction of the navy supply facility began in 1942. Cheatham Annex was commissioned in June 1943 as a satellite unit of the Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk, Virginia to provide bulk storage facilities in the Tidewater, Virginia area. The mission of Cheatham Annex has remained essentially the same since its commissioning. Prior to Navy ownership and activity, the site was the location of an explosives manufacturing facility operated by the DuPont de Nemours Company. Construction of a TNT and dynamite manufacturing Plant, designated as "Factory # 37", began in 1916. During it's construction in 1916, Factory 37 was renamed the "Penniman TNT Plant" in honor of the inventor of TNT. The Penniman TNT Plant was completed in October 1916. In 1917, Penniman was converted to a shell loading plant under contract to the U.S. Government, and was renamed U.S. Penniman Shell Loading Plant. In 1918, following the end of WWI, the facility was re-designated as the Penniman General Ordnance Depot. Between 1918 and 1926, the U.S. Government operated the Penniman General Ordnance Depot primarily to prepare ordnance and explosives for long-term storage at other ordnance Depots in the United States. During this same period, DuPont was decommissioning military ordnance and dismantling the former Shell Loading Plant. In 1926, all of the property formerly known as the U.S. Penniman Shell Loading Plant, the Penniman General Ordnance Depot, and the Penniman TNT Plant were transferred to private parties, and a majority of the land reverted to farm use. An EPA Site Inspection (SI) was completed at a portion of the Penniman Shell Loading Plant site in 1999. The EPA SI identified sources that were formerly part of the overall DuPont plant. Five of the Source Areas used to place CAX on the NPL are related to former Penniman activities. An Initial Assessment Study (IAS), conducted by the Navy, was completed at Cheatham Annex in 1984. This study identified twelve disposal sites and potential contamination areas. Four of the 12 sites were recommended for additional studies. Three of these sites (identified as Sites 1, 9, and 11 in the IAS) are identified as Source Areas and were used to place the Cheatham Annex facility on the NPL. The Cheatham Annex facility is under the command of the adjacent Naval Weapons Station Yorktown which is also an NPL site. Site Responsibility The Cheatham Annex facility is being addressed through Federal actions.
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