Lake Ontario Ordnance Works

Lake Ontario Ordnance Works
Youngstown, New York in United States
Lake Ontario Ordnance Works in 1941
Lake Ontario Ordnance Works Show map of New York Lake Ontario Ordnance Works Show map of the United States
Coordinates	43°13′39″N 78°58′35″W / 43.22750°N 78.97639°W / 43.22750; -78.97639
Height	315 feet (96 m)
Site information
Owner	United States Army Corps of Engineers
Site history
Built	1941 (1941)
Built by	United States Department of War
In use	1941 (1941)–1948 (1948)
Events	World War II, Cold War, Manhattan Project
Geographic Names Information System[1]

The former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW) was a 7,500-acre (3,000 ha) military installation located in Niagara County, New York, United States, approximately 9.6 mi (15.4 km) north of Niagara Falls.

The property was purchased by the War Department during World War II as a location for the production of TNT. Most of the LOOW property was sold after the war.

The United States Department of Energy currently owns 191 acres (77 ha) of the original LOOW property, on which the Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS) is located. The NFSS is used for the storage of radioactive materials produced during the development of America's first atom bombs.^[2]

Approximately 93 percent of the original LOOW site—currently occupied by homes, a school, a campground, the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, farms, local and federal government operations, and a toxic waste facility—meets the criteria of a Formerly Used Defense Site,^[3][4] and one portion of the property is listed as a Superfund cleanup site.^[5]