2006 CPEO Military List Archive

From: "Laura Olah" <cswab@merr.com>
Date: 14 Aug 2006 15:31:54 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] PRESS RELEASE: Military Exemption Will Set Dangerous National Precedent - Pentagon Ignoring Alternatives to Burning PCBs
 

CSWAB

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger

E12629 Weigand’s Bay South - Merrimac, WI  53561

Phone (608) 643-3124 - Fax (608) 643-0005

Email: info@cswab.org - Website: www.cswab.org

August 14, 2006

 

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

 

For more information contact:

Laura Olah, CSWAB (608)643-3124

 

Military Exemption Will Set Dangerous National Precedent

Pentagon Ignoring Alternatives to Burning PCBs

 

Nearly 100 explosives-contaminated buildings originally slated for open burning have been safely dismantled at Wisconsin’s Badger Army Ammunition Plant so far, preventing the uncontrolled release of dioxins, lead, PCBs, and other toxins to the environment.  Community members hope that this will pave the way for the safe disposal of unwanted buildings and the end of open burning at closing bases everywhere. 

At Nebraska’s Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant alone, more than 1,200 contaminated buildings have already been burned – spewing toxic emissions onto nearby surface water and the prairie landscape.  Thousands more have been burned at closing bases across the country including the Joliet Arsenal in Illinois, Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in Kansas, Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, and the Ravenna Arsenal in Ohio. 

In response to public and regulatory concerns about air quality during an open burn, the Army at Badger has been using what it calls “conventional wet demolition”.   This is a detailed process that involves multiple inspections by explosives safety officers, removal and decontamination of explosives and other hazardous residues, and finally, under a constant spray of water, demolition with armor-plated equipment.

In an apparent disconnect with efforts here in Wisconsin, the Department of Defense is pressuring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a precedent-setting exemption to existing hazardous waste regulations and permission to open burn PCB-contaminated buildings still remaining at Badger and the Ravenna Arsenal.

To that end, the Army recently awarded a $100,000 contract to Battelle Laboratories in Ohio to predict toxic air emissions that will be released from heating PCB-contaminated paints.  In July, Battelle submitted a formal request for EPA approval of the test.

At Badger, PCBs are found in paint on pipes and walls at concentrations as high as 22,000 parts per million (ppm); the regulatory threshold is only 50 ppm.  Open burning of PCB-contaminated wastes is prohibited under current law because it results in the uncontrolled release of highly toxic by-products of combustion including dioxins and furans. 

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB), a local environmental group that has organized a national campaign to stop open burning of the military’s hazardous waste, says research and development is needed for non-thermal alternatives – not more burning. 

Alternative solutions to wet demolition will be needed for some buildings at Badger.  Buildings that contain high explosives such as nitroglycerine, for example, remain a challenge.  In these cases, non-thermal techniques – which include biological deactivation, demolition by explosives, chemical deactivation, and water blasting – are possible alternatives.  

Despite the meticulous process involved in wet demolition, Badger officials report that this method does not cost more than open burning.  In addition to being environmentally-friendly, the new approach has been a big plus for the local economy.  The base currently employs 125 people from the surrounding rural communities to work on building demolition and cleanup.

Workers are also busy with salvage and recycling operations which are currently generating as much as $190,000 per month.   Officials at Badger report that approximately 38 percent of all demolition materials are reused or recycled.  Recycled materials are primarily metals including copper, steel, lead, and aluminum.  This money is then used for other environmental cleanup activities at the base.

Representatives of CSWAB recently traveled to Washington DC to discuss with Congressional representatives their concerns about the risks associated with open burning especially for infants and children – a group that is especially vulnerable to environmental toxins.  Already, more than 140 organizations have joined CSWAB’s anti-burning campaign.

More information, including an action alert, is posted on their website at www.cswab.org.

*   *   *

 

Photographs available by email upon request:

·        In 2002, three-quarter-mile-long Load Line 1 was set ablaze at Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant in Nebraska, filling the prairie sky with thick black smoke. (Photographs by the Independent/Gerik Parmele and Barrett Stinson.) (.pdf file)

 

·        Wet demolition in lieu of burning explosives-contaminated buildings at Badger Army Ammunition Plant in Wisconsin. (U.S. Army photograph obtained by CSWAB through the Freedom of Information Act.)  (.jpg file)

 

Additional photographs and information are also available at: http://www.cswab.com/burningpcbs.html

 

 

 

 

 

- -

Laura Olah, Executive Director

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger

E12629 Weigand's Bay South

Merrimac, WI  53561

Phone: (608) 643-3124

Email: info@cswab.org

Website: www.cswab.org

 

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