[CPEO-MEF] Army wants company to pay for Redstone cleanup

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Alabama
Army wants company to pay for Redstone cleanup
The Associated Press
1/20/03 1:40 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- The Army wants ATK Thiokol Propulsion to pay
for cleaning up its former Redstone Arsenal missile plant, where the
government already has spent $30 million removing pollution.

Redstone spokeswoman Pam Rogers said the Pentagon may sue the company
over the cost of removing trichloroethylene, or TCE, from the
groundwater on the base.

Rod Bitz, a spokesman for ATK Thiokol's parent company, Alliant
Techsystems Inc., declined comment. The Army has not told the company it
is considering legal action, he said.

A common industrial degreaser, TCE has been linked to liver and kidney
damage. ATK Thiokol, previously Thiokol Corp., used TCE and another
toxic chemical, ammonium perchlorate, at its missile-engine research and
production facility on the arsenal.

Perchlorate, the main ingredient of solid rocket fuel, is thought to
alter the body's production of thyroid hormones. From about 1949 until
the early 1990s, the Army says, Thiokol's wastewater flowed directly
onto the ground.

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