Is fog oil an environmental and healthproblem?

[Center for Public Environmental Oversight <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

The below referenced EA for Guard training is for the use of 66,000 gallons 
of
fog oil, light mineral oil, per year to create obscurant clouds for chemical
warfare training. The obscurant is vaporized by contact with the exhaust gas 
of
a pulse jet engine, however, the obscurant cloud is not a combustion product.
They will use bladders and tankers. Starting this spring-summer, mobile 
source
battlefield smoke generators will be used to create tactical smoke clouds 
using
fog oil to screen friendly actions against agressor positions. Units will
generate smoke for a duration of two hours or less for each event.
The obscurant and devices used to produce the obscurant are not unproven

technologies, so they say. The US Army Chemical school has produced extensive
Standard Operating Procedures on the use and effects of fog oil both in the 
US
and abroad, they say. All this according to the below referenced EA. This 
training is to be, and presently is being, done at the Dona Ana Range, New
Mexico, of Ft. Bliss Texas/NM right over the Texas state line in New Mexico.

Of concern to local low income minority communities in the area, is that this
has already been done, and the clouds drifted off the training range creating
haze that required initial consideration of an emergency response. According 
to
sources working for the State of New Mexico local Environmental Quality 
Office,
the military training was beomg conducted by contractors, and these training
contractors were fined. The EA references a short 1995 letter from the New
Mexico Enviro Dept to Ft. Bliss, saying that FT. Bliss is not at Title V 
major
source of pollution and not subject to 20 NMAC 2.70 permit requirement (sorry
haven't a clue what this means) but gather this is being taken as an OK to do
this training.

Mitigations, well they don't call them such, rather they are stated factually 
as
"we will's", monitor for atmospheric inversions and only train with this 
stuff
when there are inversions. This is rather unbelievable, as inversions are 
what
force pollutants to the ground onto troops, and publics in adjacent areas. 
But
may be this is what they want for realistic training. Oh, it is stated that 
they
are simulating Southwest Asia conditions.

Sorry folks, I'm a lands activist, but this looks bad to me. And I am unsure 
of
what Club should do if anything. I did call and alert the State Environment 
Dept
Air Quality monitoring officers. They indicated that since my initial hoopla 
a
while back over interstate, intra air shed concerns, Texas and NM AGs offices 
are now talking to each other.

It appears to me that this EA raises three issues, EQ-AIR, EQ-Environmental
Justice, and what is going on? contract training? and all that is done when 
they
foul up is get a fine???

Environmental Assessment for Rio Bravo Combined Foreces Training Exercise, 
Fort
Bliss, Texas 1998to 2003 for 460th Chemical Brigade, North Little Rock, AR;
323rd Engineer Company, El Paso, TX; 285th Engineer Company, Baton Rouge, LA; 
420th Engineer Brigade, Bryan TX.

April 1998

Contact person, and requests for copies of the document to:
Cambell Ingram
USAADACENFB
Attn:ATZC-DOE(Ingram)
Fort Bliss, Texas 79916-6816
phone 915-568-3908
Marianne