[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, GLOBAL: "Unexploded military ordnance a continuing concern in Canada"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Unexploded military ordnance a continuing concern in Canada

BY RENE BRUEMMER, POSTMEDIA NEWS
Montreal Gazette
FEBRUARY 21, 2012

It was the summer of 1945 and 20-year-old able seaman Clifford Palmer  
was sailing up the St. Lawrence to Quebec City on HMCS Beauharnois.

...

On the way, however, it would perform one final duty for the Royal  
Canadian Navy. It stopped in St. John's to take on a load of leftover  
ammunition from another ship. Then, somewhere off the coast of the  
Gaspe, the Beauharnois dropped all that ship's armaments, along with  
the bullets, depth charges, missiles and explosives the Beauharnois  
once used to hunt submarines, overboard, to lie on the floor of the  
Gulf of St. Lawrence.

...

It turns out the federal government is well aware of the Beauharnois'  
dumping ground. It is one of hundreds of sites across Canada  
identified as containing live and dangerous explosives.

"In recent years, there have been several deaths and serious injuries  
caused by unexploded explosive ordnances (UXO) in Canada," a  
Department of National Defence website notes. "Caution is always  
required when entering UXO legacy sites."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Unexploded+military+ordnance 
+continuing+concern+Canada/6187064/story.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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