[CPEO-MEF] Tango firing range, Camp Edwards, MA

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Chemically tainted soil taken from firing range

By Amanda Lehmert
Cape Cod Times (MA)
June 20, 2007

CAMP EDWARDS - In one of the final steps to prepare for firing lead 
ammunition at the Tango firing range, 260 cubic yards of 
explosives-tainted soil have been scraped off the firing range floor, 
covered in plastic and stored for safekeeping.

Massachusetts National Guard officials finished the soil removal Friday. 
It was done at the behest of the Environmental Protection Agency to 
prevent nitroglycerin in the soil from spreading. But environmental and 
military leaders do not yet agree whether the nitroglycerin could 
contaminate the Cape's groundwater, the area's main source of drinking 
water.

Military and environmental leaders will meet with the public tonight to 
discuss the Guard's petition to lift the decade-long lead ammunition ban 
at Camp Edwards. The Guard is scheduled to return to firing lead 
ammunition later.

Nitroglycerin is one of a handful of contaminants, including heavy 
metals, that have seeped into the Camp Edwards small arms ranges from 
years of training with lead ammunition. The nitroglycerin, bound in a 
kind of microscopic fiber, is a part of the ammunition's propellant, 
which makes the bullet explode.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/NEWS/706200316/-1/NEWSLETTER02

--


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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