[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Government Bickering Clouds Cleanup Effort at Camp Minden" (LA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

An Explosive Crisis: Government Bickering Clouds Cleanup Effort at  
Camp Minden

By Mike Ludwig
Truthout
January 30, 2015


More than two years have passed since investigators found 15 million  
pounds of hazardous and potentially explosive artillery munitions  
waste known as M-6 at the Camp Minden military facility in northwest  
Louisiana, but the government's plan for cleaning up the mess is once  
again unclear as federal regulators haggle with an angry public and  
the Jindal administration.

On January 15, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced  
that Louisiana state officials would have an extra 90 days to choose  
a contractor and a disposal method for cleaning up M-6 propellant, 15  
million pounds of which was illegally stashed at Camp Minden by a  
private US Army contractor and discovered after a massive explosion  
rocked the area two years ago. The extension would give authorities  
time to consider alternatives to the original plan - burning the  
waste in open trays at the site.

Opposition to the so-called "open burn" had reached a fever pitch. In  
December, a local scientist pointed out that chemicals within the M-6  
have been linked to cancer and birth defects. Fearing that pollutants  
from the open burn would enter the air unabated and contaminate  
neighboring communities with cancer-causing vapors, concerned  
citizens launched a campaign to demand that authorities find a  
cleaner alternative for disposing of the waste.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28826-an-explosive-crisis- 
government-bickering-clouds-cleanup-effort-at-camp-minden

--

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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