2,000 ACRES TO RETURN TO NATIVE AMERICANS

["Grace Bukowsk" <rama@accutek.com>]

Thought folks might find this of interest.

Badlands clean-up, from mspaven@gn.apc.org (Malcolm Spaven):

24 Jun 97 Air Force News Service

970744. Ellsworth EOD heads bomb range clearance team
by Tech. Sgt. Armon T. Gaddy Jr.
28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs

ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. (AFNS) -- Nearly 2,000 acres of the former
Badlands Bombing Range at the Pine Ridge Reservation are being cleaned up
for return to American Indians.

The land has been under Air Force control for more than 50 years and was
declared "too hot" for reuse because of the large number of unexploded
ordnance there.

Starting June 30, the Ellsworth explosive ordnance disposal flight will lead
a crew of temporary-duty Air Force and Marine explosive ordnance disposal
specialists in a 120-day project to clear the site of as much of the
unexploded ordnance as they can find, from the surface down to a depth of 1
foot. The task
will have them combing more than 108 million cubic feet on foot with
ordnance locators and shovels.

"There are a lot of unresolved issues out there; however, this is a solid
first step toward turning the land back over to the Oglala Sioux tribe."
said Dell Petersen, chief of environmental restoration efforts at Ellsworth
and co-chair of the Badlands Bombing Range Restoration Advisory Board.

"The high explosive items and those items we can't identify will be blown up
on site," said Master Sgt. Christopher Corall, Ellsworth EOD flight chief.
"The residue and scrap we find will be certified (as safe), crated and
turned in to the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office."

Original plans called for a controlled burn at the site prior to the
clearance operation to remove heavy vegetation growing there, but the
unusually wet South Dakota winter made the grass too green to burn.

Although this will present additional challenges for the EOD flight chief
and his crew of 38, Corall said, "Heat will be our biggest enemy.
Also, if it rains, the prairie gumbo (sticky mud) can become a problem.
And rattlesnakes should keep things lively out there."

In the 1940s, the U.S. government seized approximately 342,000 acres of the
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for a bombing range to train WW II
pilots. The land seizure forced 125 Oglala Sioux families to sell their
farms and ranches for 3 cents an acre, according to Emma Featherman-Sam,
director
of the Badlands Bombing Range project.

"We read all the time about the lingering dangers of live shells left behind
by the Allies and Germans in the fields of France, but here we have a
similar safety threat in the backyard of our own country, and few people
know about it," said Featherman-Sam. "The most serious impact to our land
is the potential
for unexploded ordnance that hinders any kind of development among people
who want to move back to the property but are afraid."

The EOD clearance to a depth of 1 foot will make the land safe for grazing,
but not for farming or other development, said Petersen. "Our hope is that
with improved technology and detection equipment, we can help improve that
situation even more. The Navy has asked to test some new detection
equipment at the site this summer." (Courtesy of Air Combat Command News
Service)