[CPEO-MEF] Bill could impact cleanup of JPG’s depleted uran

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Indiana
Friday, April 04, 2003
Bill could impact cleanup of JPG’s depleted uranium.
By: Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer

A congressman from Washington state has introduced legislation calling
for health and environmental studies and for cleanup at sites where the
military produced, tested or used depleted uranium. The Army tested
munitions containing depleted uranium at Jefferson Proving Ground from
1983 to 1994.

The bill “sounds like a good thing to do,” said Richard Hill,
co-chairman of the JPG Restoration Advisory Board and president of the
Save the Valley environmental group.

The Army has estimated that it left about 77 tons of munitions
containing DU on the ground at JPG and does not intend to pick it up
because the DU is in the same area as tons of tested ordnance that
didn’t explode but could if disturbed.

The Army estimated last year that removing the depleted uranium and
restoring the land would take 19 years and cost $45 million to $1.6
billion because of the presence of unexploded ordnance and the need to
restore the ground. Testing at JPG disturbed the ground for a foot to a
foot and a half deep, the Army said.

The Army’s position has been that while the health and environmental
effects of DU need more study, there is no hazard to people from the DU
at the former proving ground if they are kept out of the area where it
is concentrated and if warning signs, fences and gates now in place are
maintained.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=263&ArticleID=11472

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