Lake Michigan Artillery

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

EPA PROMISES ADDITIONAL STUDY OF LAKE MICHIGAN ARTILLERY RANGE

In response to a petition from a Glencoe, Illinois community activist,
U.S. EPA has determined that further assessment of the Ft. Sheridan
artillery range in Lake Michigan is warranted. In a letter to Steven
Pollack (whose postings are sometimes seen on this listserver), an EPA
Region 5 official wrote that based upon the findings of a Preliminary
Assessment (PA), recently completed, a Site Investigation (SI) will be
conducted. The official wrote, "Neither U.S. EPA nor Illinois EPA has
the resources or expertise in explosives safety to do additional
sampling themselves. Therefore, U.S. EPA will work with the Army in
expanding the Army's current sampling efforts to include sediment and
additional lake water sampling."

EPA concluded, however, "that the potential for release of Royal
Demolition Explosive (RDX) is very unlikely at the site." The official
wrote that only small amounts of RDX were present in munitions used at
the range, and that the compound is very mobile: "we would be surprised
to detect either chemical [RDX or PETN] in lake water after dilution
effects are considered." Instead, EPA found - based upon Army
information - that most of the artillery fired into the lake contained
TNT and tetryl. The letter says, "TNT and tetryl are relatively immobile
and bind well to sediments. The PA assumes [as a worst case] that the
sediments may be affected by lake-bottom currents and the TNT is present
in the sediments in the vicinity of drinking water intakes."

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org