[CPEO-MEF] rocket fuel recycling troubles

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The report, from Westford, Massachusetts, that commercial blasting for
either highway construction or quarrying may be responsible for local
perchlorate contamination, is particularly troubling. Instead of
shifting the responsibility for perchlorate pollution from the military
and aerospace industry, it suggests that what has been a promising
solution to that problem may simply shift the hazard elsewhere.

For fourteen years I have supported the recycling of solid rocket fuel.
I have repeatedly praised the armed services' development and deployment
of systems that remove waste rocket fuel, treat it, and make it
available for reuse. Other industries, such as mining and construction,
can use propellant that doesn't make the grade necessary for launching
rockets and missiles.

Systems to deal with old, scrap, or otherwise unusable rocket fuel are
essential. In 2001, the Army reported, "The 80 million pounds of
ammonium perchlorate oxidizer that can be recovered from obsolete
missile propellants may be recycled back into new military munitions or
converted into various industrial products ..." By 2020, as many as
727,000 missiles and components will require demilitarization.

Until now, recycling has appeared to be a win-win solution, for it has
enabled significant reductions in open burning/open detonation and other
thermal treatment, and it has generated a revenue stream to help pay for
the cost of demilitarization and disposal.

But in Westford, reportedly, some of that apparently recycled
contaminant has leaked free. The Westford reports don't reveal the
source of the suspect blasting agent, but the implications are clear. If
current practices for handling and using commercial perchlorate-based
explosives lead to health-threatening releases, then fuel recycling, in
itself, is not an adequate solution.

The potential cumulative national impact needs to be investigated. If
the Westford story is confirmed and repeated, then either better
management practices will be needed to prevent pollution from commercial
blasting, or recycling, itself maybe need to be reconsidered.

Lenny
-- 


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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