Peters Cartridge Factory sits along the Little Miami River in Kings Mills, Ohio. It produced ammunition from 1887 to 1944. Investigations beginning in 1994 found contamination in soil, sediment, and groundwater. EPA added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in September 2012. The NPL is the federal government's list of the most serious hazardous waste sites in the country.
Eleven contaminants of concern have been identified in Operable Unit 01. They include antimony, arsenic, benzo[a]pyrene, copper, lead, mercury, and naphthalene. People can be exposed by ingesting or touching contaminated soil, sediment, or groundwater. Human exposure is currently at an insufficient data status, meaning the information gathered so far is not reliable enough to confirm whether people face unacceptable exposure risks. Groundwater contamination migration is under control.
Cleanup work ran from March 2015 to June 2017. Workers removed contaminated soil, cleaned drainage areas, removed debris, consolidated contaminated material into an onsite cell, capped that cell, and set up groundwater monitoring. The site was also placed under use and access restrictions. Construction was finished by September 2016, and the site moved into the operations and maintenance phase in June 2017. In September 2018, a portion called the Former Process Area was deleted from the NPL after meeting cleanup goals. That deletion reduced the site from 71 acres to 56 acres.
A five-year review completed in March 2020 found the cleanup protective of human health and the environment in the short term. The review noted that long-term protection would require environmental covenants and other institutional controls on property parcels, and most of those controls have since been put in place. A second five-year review was completed on March 10, 2025. The site is estimated to be ready for anticipated reuse between March and May 2028. Full deletion from the NPL has not yet occurred. Two businesses currently operate on-site, employing five people and generating an estimated $522,340 in annual sales.
Community members who want to follow the site's progress or ask questions can contact the EPA staff assigned to the site. Administrative records covering the site's contamination history, cleanup actions, and regulatory status are also available through EPA's public database.
