Commander's Excellence Award

20 July 1998

Sierra Army Depot (SIAD) is a government owned, government operated installation, functioning as part of the U. S. Army Industrial Operations Command, Rock Island, Illinois. SIAD is located in Herlong, California, in Lassen County's Honey Lake Valley, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. SIAD's mission is to provide customers with high quality, cost effective operations in receipt, storage, repair, and issue of equipment and components for Operational Project Stock. SIAD also receives, stores, issues, maintains, and demilitarizes conventional ammunition.

SIAD currently employees a workforce of 569 people. The Depot has 1,177 buildings totaling 5,518,516 square feet of floor space, and covers an area of 96,792 acres. SIAD has more than 3.6 million square feet of improved hardstand storage areas. Having ample storage space with virtually unlimited room to expand for future projects, SIAD provides free asset storage for active customers.

In 1993, SIAD was designated as the Army's Center of Technical Excellence for Operational Project Stocks. SIAD is home to the three largest Operational Project Stocks in the Army: Inland Petroleum Distribution System, Water Support System, and Force Provider. In addition, SIAD is home for other Operational Project Stocks including: Deployable Medical Systems - Non-Medical Equipment, Army Field Feeding Systems, Large Area Maintenance Shelters, Landing Mat Sets, and Bridging.

SIAD was awarded the Value Engineering Commander's Excellence Award for government owned, government operated facilities in fiscal year 1998. SIAD earned the award for exceeding the Value Engineering program goal by 270%, for a total cost savings of $3,773,000. Another of SIAD's efforts resulted in the design and building of container rotation devices which significantly reduced the costs associated with container movement through each repair station.

SIAD's high-desert location provides ideal conditions for storing Operational Project Stocks for extended periods of time. Pacific air that moves into the region loses most of its moisture before reaching the Honey Lake Valley, resulting in an average yearly high temperature of 66.9 degrees and a low of 36.4 degrees. Average yearly precipitation is 7.49 inches, with an average yearly humidity of only 30.96. SIAD has ready access to all west coast ports. The Depot is connected by several all-weather highways, has an internal rail system linked with two transcontinental rail lines, and has a 7,100-foot runway that accommodates up to C5A aircraft.

Repair facilities located at SIAD include the management of the Inland Petroleum Distribution Systems; Water Support Systems; Force Provider; Army Field Feeding Systems; Large Area Maintenance Shelters; Landing Mat Sets; Bridging; and Reserve Component Hospital Detachment Associated Support Items of Equipment (non-medical). The activities at SIAD include receipt, storage, and care of supplies in storage, repair, assembly, disassembly, and shipment of major and secondary items for all systems.

SIAD also receives, issues, stores, renovates, and demilitarizes (destroys) ammunition. Since the decision of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 1995 to realign the Depot's ammunition functions, most operations involve the disposal of obsolete or outdated munitions. Three facilities are identified specifically for demilitarization of ammunition at SIAD. The deactivation furnace is an incinerator that can demilitarize small arms ammunition, primers, fuses, and boosters. The Depot has approval from the state of California to demilitarize up to 0.50 caliber rounds in the deactivation furnace. As such, two general purpose buildings are used to download and pull apart ammunition for demilitarization. They are equipped with intrusion detection systems and rapid response deluge systems for safety.

SIAD is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to receive, store, issue, renovate, and demilitarize (disassemble) depleted uranium rounds. SIAD has the largest open burn/open detonation capacity in the United States. Fourteen pits, permitted by the state of California, can detonate up to 10,000 pounds net explosive weight per pit. The Depot's demilitarize grounds are also able to burn materials up to 100,000 pounds net explosive weight. The open detonation pits are also used to dispose of large rocket motors with a160,000-pound net explosive weight capacity for the pit area. The large open-burn/open-detonation capability of the Depot provides the Department of Defense and government contractors with the ability to destroy large rocket motors at a lower cost than any other location. SIAD takes every step possible to be a good neighbor and operates under all local, state, and federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations to get the job done with minimal environmental impact.

The following acronyms were used in this report:

DIBS Depot Integrated Budget System
DIT Damage In Transit
HAGAR High Agility Ground Accessible Robot
QA Quality Assurance
RCN Receipt Control Number
SIAD Sierra Army Depot
SIPS Sound Intensity Prediction System
SODAR Sonic Detection and Ranging Device