Disposing of old artillery

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CONNECTICUT
STRATFORD STAR EDITOR
Disposing of old artillery
Donald Eng
March 18, 2004

Artillery shells often have a delay between firing and exploding. A
delay of a century is unusual, though.

Stratford-based Sporting Goods Properties Inc. (SGP) has proposed a plan
to dispose of unexploded artillery shells at the Lake Success Business
Park. The 419-acre site, at 615 Asylum Street in Bridgeport, includes
parts of Stratford near Broadbridge Avenue.

"We have located six one-inch and three-inch artillery shells that date
from World War I," said SGP spokesman Victor Ordija. "They appear to
have been fired but did not explode."

The Remington Arms Company produced, tested, stored and disposed of
ammunition on the site until 1989, according to U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency spokesman Stephanie Carr. For the last 15 years, SGP
has been cleaning up the site in preparation for redevelopment.

Ordija said his company would bring in a contained detonation chamber
(CDC) to explode the shells on site.

"These shells have been in a storage bunker on the site for decades," he
said. "They are not really unsafe or unstable right now, but they are
designed to explode, so you don't want to handle them too much."

Carr agreed. "The options for disposal are to explode them in place,
remove them from the site or to use a CDC," she said.

She added that a CDC was the safest option.

"Exploding them in place leaves open the possibility for air and ground
contamination," she said. "And moving the shells off site means they
would be trucking them through the surrounding neighborhoods."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1343&dept_id=433660&newsid=11141453&PAG=461&rfi=9

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