Ordance at Plum Tree Island Refuge

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Military bombs left behind years ago are latest to surface in Poquoson
refuge 

By JOANNE KIMBERLIN
The Virginian-Pilot
August 16, 2004 

POQUOSON ? A breeze glides an unseen hand across the sage grass. Waves
of golden tassels bow their heads at its stroke. Birds soar. Crabs
scuttle. Fish jump. 

Bombs lurk in the shallows and litter the shore. These are the extremes
of Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 3,300-acre Peninsula
salt marsh buffering the small town of Poquoson from the Bay. 

The bombs went unnoticed until this summer, though it's likely they were
churned up in September when Hurricane Isabel bulldozed across Poquoson.
Bombs have been found in Plum Tree before, but never so many at once.
Crusty with rust and barnacles, about 40 100-pounders and a handful of
rockets were found in June along the southeast shoreline of an island
marking the eastern edge of the refuge. 

They're the latest to surface from a long-buried arsenal of unknown
size. Plum Tree absorbed tons of ordnance between 1917 and the
mid-1950s, when the military used the marsh as a practice range,
sharpening skills that would win two world wars. Some bombs exploded as
intended during the practices. Others did not. Duds that were easy to
spot were removed before 1972, when the military gave the marsh to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Submerged or buried bombs were left
behind. 

...

for the entire article, see
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=74394&ran=214957

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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