[CPEO-MEF] Buried Munitions Block Subdivision

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17993-2000Dec17.html

Buried Munitions Block Subdivision
By Steven Gray
Washington Post Staff Writer
December  17, 2000

The St. Mary's County Board of Appeals has overturned a Planning Commission
approval to build a subdivision on land where a U.S. government defense
contractor buried live munitions five decades ago.

In what county officials widely hailed as a precedent-setting case, the
board unanimously ruled Dec. 7 that Virginia developer Robert S. Gollahon's
request to build a farmstead subdivision on an 800-acre tract near Oakville
was invalid because it failed to provide a sufficient historical review of
the site from the 1950s.

Gollahon, of King George County, Va., purchased the land last year from
Thiokol Corp., a subsidiary of Cordant Technologies Inc., which bought the
tract in 1959. Previously, the tract was owned by Hunter Chemical Co. and
Federal Ordnance Corp., which manufactured detonators in the 1950s, records
show.

Witnesses for the developer told the Planning Commission that there had
been intensive efforts to screen the land for explosives, and said that
while there are no guarantees that no more lie buried, the prospect is
remote. They maintained that the tiny detonators that had been recovered
were inert, or not explosive, after long exposure to the elements.

continued...

To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17993-2000Dec17.html

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