1997 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997 23:53:11 -0700 (PDT)
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: VIEQUES RANGE & TOXICS
 
U.S. NAVAL CONTAMINATION ON VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO

(Vieques island, Puerto Rico is the site of an ongoing anti-colonial 
struggle against Navy bombing similar to the Hawai'ian movement 
that successfully halted Navy munitions training on the island of 
Kaho'olawe. There are two major differences. People still live on 
Vieques. And the Navy is still using the island for target practice. 
There is reported evidence of even more toxic contamination from 
munitions than has been reported at ranges within the 50 United 
States. The following two papers come to us from the Comite Pro Rescate 
y Desarrollo de Vieques (Committee for the Rescue and Development 
of Vieques) Apartado 1424, Vieques, Puerto Rico, 00765. - Lenny 
Siegel)

VIEQUES: AN ECOLOGY UNDER SIEGE

The most alarming contaminating factor in Vieques, and also the oldest,
historically, is the U.S. Navy. The fifty years that the Navy has been
operating in Vieques can be classified as "a half century of
environmental disaster."

The Puerto Rican environmentalist Dr. Neftali Garcia, in his work,
"Historical and natural Consequences of the U.S. Navy Presence in
Vieques," affirms that the military practices have produced serious
destruction of the "mangroves, lagoons, beaches, coconut groves and
other natural resources (...) the Navy destroyed the coco groves of
Bahia Tapon, Bahia de la Chiva, Pnta Brigadier, Puerto Negro, Puerto
Diablo and has begun the destruction in other areas like Bahia Salinas
del Sur."

Professor Jose Seguinot Barbosa, Director of the Geography Department of
the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, in his study entitled,
"Vieques, the Ecology of an Island Under Siege" (1989) maintains that
"the eastern tip of the island (where the Navy carries out its bombing
practice) constitutes a region with more craters per kilometer that the
moon." In the same work, Seguinot states that "the destruction of the
natural and human resource of Vieques violates the basic norms of
international law and human rights. At the state and federal level the
laws pertaining to the coastal zone, water and noise quality, underwater
resources, archaeological resources and land use, among others are
violated."

The Viequense chemical engineer, Rafael Cruz Perez, in an article
entitles, "Contamination Produced by Explosives and Residuals of
Explosives in Vieques, Puerto Rico," (Dimension, Magazine of the
Association of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico, Year 2, Vol. 8
Jan. 1988) describes three sources of contamination that result from the
Navy's activities in Vieques: 1) the chemical composition of the
missiles' charge and the composition of the reaction; 2) the particles
of dust and rock that are thrown into the atmosphere as a result of the
projectile's impact or of the explosions; 3) metallic residues left by
the projectiles when they fragment, as well as the scrap iron used as
targets in the bombing area.

Cruz is an environmental consultant with vast experience in the field.
He was an artillery officer in the US Army and worked in Vieques
studying the environmental effects of the artillery practices that are
conducted there. He describes the situation of Cerro Matias and other
adjacent sectors (the Navy's bombing zone) like a "battlefield during
the First World War, where the ground and a great part of the vegetation
has been reduced to dust (...) you see the bomb fragments and pieces, as
well as the bombs that didn't explode (...) scrap iron that is used as
targets (...) Cerro Matias can be considered in its fundamental
characteristics as a giant deposit of solid waste."

The Viequense engineer adds in his article that "according to the
information provided by the US Navy, this material is never removed,
instead it is detonated or simply covered over with dirt (...) As a
result of the effects of the explosions, the sea breezes and natural
atmospherization, the metal's are oxidized or decomposed changing in an
accelerated form into products that contaminate the environment."

"In the same study we find (...) that the concentration of the
contaminants (TNT, NO3, NO2, RDX and Tetryl) in the sources of drinking
water in the towns of Isabel Segunda and la Esperanza, are the same or
similar to those found in the ponds and lagoons in the bombing area in
Cerro Matias. The study does no explain how these substances reach the
water sources, located more that fourteen kilometers from the bombing
area."

"It is clear from all the above," the author points out, "that
components resulting from the explosions in the bombing area in the eat
of Vieques are transported by diverse mechanisms toward the civilian
area in the center of the island (...) In the case of the explosion of
pieces of artillery, missiles and bombs, there exist various factors
which directly or indirectly, increase the facility of movement of these
contaminants (...) The cloud of contaminants generated by an explosion
is dispersed by the effects of the prevailing winds in the explosion
area (...) the fine particles become part of the atmosphere, and are
transported through the air over great distances (...) we find that the
effective concentration of particles over the civil area of Vieques
exceeds 197 micrograms per cubic meter and therefore exceeds the legal
federal criteria for clean air."

The scientific studies confirm what every Viequense knows from
experience: that the presence and activities of the US Navy result in
an environmental crisis
with serious consequences fro the human and physical geographic health.
An obvious solution will be to end the overwhelming source of
contamination in Vieques: US Navy out of Vieques!

(Robert Rabin, Vieques Historic Archives 1992
Translation to English by US/Puerto Rico Solidarity Network for
publication in Puerto Rico Update)

 NAVY DROPS NAPALM ON VIEQUES
R. Rabin

In October of 1992, on the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, U.S. Navy
pilots conducted the first bombing in ten years using live napalm.
Napalm contains an incendiary material and gelatinous phosphorous that
burns everything around it and adheres to skin. Between 1963 and 1968,
the Unites States dropped nearly one hundred thousand tons of napalm on
Vietnam. Just one ton of this combustible gelatin will burn a surface
area equivalent to one and a half football fields in seconds.

Due to recent studies that show that water deposits in the Esperanza
neighborhood are contaminated with residues from explosives used by the
Navy during bombings on the eastern part of Vieques, residents fear that
the use of napalm will aggravate the situation. Traces of the
explosive, TNT, were found in the water in Esperanza. According to the
study carried out the chemical engineer Rafael Cruz Prez, published in
the magazine, Dimension, of the chemical engineers guild of Puerto Rico,
the Navy has created a gigantic solid waste zone on the eastern part of
Vieques. Puerto Rican scientists and environmentalists are trying to
determine the ecological impact of the napalm bombing. During a period
of two weeks of practice the Navy, besides napalm, dropped twenty tons
of live bombs over the target area of Vieques. The island of Vieques is
33,000 acres large of which 26,000 are occupied by the Navy.

According to the newspaper, El Navegante, published by the Navy at the
Roosevelt Roads base, seven "Intruder" bombers attacked targets in
Vieques. A spokesman for the Navy indicated that it "costs the squadron
only half as much to fly to Puerto Rico as to travel to the West Coast
(California) to bomb", saving money on gas. It also said that there is
"no need to wait on line for access to the bombing area" and that "two
weeks (of practice in Vieques) is the equivalent of two months of
training at the Cherry Point, North Carolina base.

The people of Vieques have suffered more than half a century of abuse
under the US Navy, which expropriated three quarters of the island in
the 1940's. Since then Vieques has been a victim of both economic as
well as physical destruction.

Over there fifty years the Navy has carried out bombings and other
military practices on the eastern part of Vieques, a zone which before
the military presence provided the means of survival for thousands of
families. Large stretches of coconut, mangroves with rich supplies of
crabs and other fish, salt mines for local use and export, large and
small sugar farms like those at Campana, Ensenada Honda and Campo Asilo
made the eastern part of the island crucial for the economic and social
life of the people.

During the 1970's Vieques' fishermen, with the support of a large sector
of the people on the island as well as on the big island, mounted a
strong and well organized offensive to end the bombing and began the
process of rescuing lands from the Navy's grasp. That struggle of men
and women "fishing for their dignity," bore important fruits. This
heroic gesture broke the veil of silence and fear that the Navy and
their "stooges" had tried - and are still trying today - to impose on
the people of Vieques.

The militant protest on water and land against the Navy's presence that
were organized between 1978 and 1980 attracted world attention to this
small island. The theme of Vieques was discussed in local and world
press and was heard in the White House (in Washington and San Juan) and
in the United Nations.

The pressure by the Viequense/Puerto Rican people forced the U.S.
Congress to carry out a series of public hearings in 1980 to investigate
the Navy's activities in Vieques. After much testimony by prominent
Navy and US government officials, functionaries of the Puerto Rican
government, - including then governor, Carlos Romero Barcelo - and
members of the Vieques community both for and against the Navy's
presence, the U.S. Congressional Committee delivered its opinion that
the Navy should abandon the island of Vieques and look for another place
to carry out its maneuvers.

The Cold War has ended, and according to President Bush, we live in a
"new world order." Nevertheless, the Navy has not left Vieques, but
rather continues to control three-quarters of the island, strangling any
possibility for real growth, and continues massive ecological
destruction of the island. For Bush, a "new world order." For Vieques,
the same old bombings. How long?

  Prev by Date: FIRING RANGE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY
Next by Date: Tad McCall/Amherst Conference
  Prev by Thread: FIRING RANGE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY
Next by Thread: Tad McCall/Amherst Conference

CPEO Home
CPEO Lists
Author Index
Date Index
Thread Index