Army lax on site cleanup

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Utah
DESERET MORNING NEWS
Army lax on site cleanup
'99 orders targeting Utah, other states weren't carried out
By Lee Davidson
February 2, 2004

WASHINGTON -- A group camping in 1986 on Utah's Hurricane Mesa, unaware
it was once an impact area for Army mortars and grenades, found
something that looked a lot like an old artillery shell.

A camper threw it into the campfire -- and discovered it was indeed a
real shell when it exploded and injured several of them.

The Army, tired of such horror stories of discovering unexploded or
forgotten ordnance nationwide, in 1999 issued directives designed to
force current and former ranges to better track their cleanup efforts,
better record ordnance use, improve security, reduce environmental
damage and improve sustainability of ranges.

But inspectors now say those directives were never implemented,
according to documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a
Freedom of Information Act request.

Worse, investigators said even if they had been implemented, they were
seriously flawed by not requiring reviews needed to ensure Army and
National Guard ranges were truly complying and meeting goals.

This article can be viewed at:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,590040320,00.html

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