[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Why Is the US Military Still Burning Its Explosive Waste in the Open Air?" (focus on Louisiana)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Why Is the US Military Still Burning Its Explosive Waste in the Open Air?

By Mike Ludwig
Truthout 
January 20, 2016

A 100-foot-long incinerator manufactured in Oklahoma is arriving this week at Camp Minden, a US military facility in northwest Louisiana where a massive and unstable stockpile of explosive artillery propellant known as the M-6 awaits destruction within its metal chamber.

For the residents of neighboring towns and the nearby city of Shreveport, the idea of 15 million pounds of hazardous and explosive waste slowly being fed into the incinerator may be unsettling, but it's far better than the government's original plan to "open burn" the M-6 on trays set out in the open air. Chemicals in the M-6 can produce cancerous fumes, and unlike an open burn, the incinerator has some air pollution controls.

A US Army contractor illegally stashed the M-6 at Camp Minden several years ago, and it was discovered after a storage bunker containing the material exploded in October 2012, sending a 7,000-foot mushroom cloud into the air and shaking homes for miles around. The Army refused to take responsibility for the mess, and after months of finger-pointing, state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an emergency plan to open burn the M-6 in late 2014.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34477-why-is-the-us-military-still-burning-its-explosive-waste-in-the-open-air

--

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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