Mineral County Yucca Mountain Oversight

The predominate land use from the community of Walker Lake to Hawthorne is Department of Defense lands. The Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot (HWAAD) is a government owned contractor operation that encompasses 147,044 acres including the southern one-third of Walker Lake. The mission of HWAAD is to serve as an ammunition depot; produce, assemble, test, and demilitarize munitions; maintain equipment; and provide tenant support. HWAAD has 1,793 permanent, earth covered munitions magazines and 97 permanent explosive storehouses, with a combined storage capability of 92,250,000 cubic feet (U.S. Department of the Air Force, 1991).