Re: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Green Ammo order

["Steven B. Pollack" <Steve@EcoEsq.com>]

Its interesting that the DOD doesn't just completely move over to green
bullets.  In our lawsuit, dismissed for lack of standing(in legal
error), we sued the Coast Guard for their live fire training on the
Great Lakes using lead bullets.  Their discarding of lead into potable
water is an obvious violation of the CWA and RCRA.  We did not seek to
stop the training but rather to require the Coast Guard to use non-lead
alternatives.  Of course they got their backs up about being told what
to do by a green group like ours so they fought the suit on standing
grounds instead of addressing the merits of the issue.

The FBI was also discarding lead bullets into Lake Michigan at its
training facility in North Chicago until we filed suit.  Same thing,
instead of dealing with the merits they denied bullets missed or
ricocheted off the berm and were discarded into Lake Michigan.  Jim
Barton (our expert) and I went to the park next to the range and the
beach below and found 40 spent bullets in order to prove the bullets
were ricocheting outside the range.  They voluntarily shut the range on
March 31, 2008 rather than face our temporary restraining order on April
1, 2008.  The funny thing is that documents turned over in discovery
indicate they mandate copper frangible rounds inside their tactical
shoot houses to protect themselves from ricochets but then they revert
to lead bullets when it is the environment being impacted.

In 2002 there was an article in Army Magazine
http://ecoesq.com/uploads/ReplyMPIex10.pdf showing that while lead
bullets initially cost less, when you factor in the post discharge
remediation costs for lead, they are actually more expensive than the
green alterntives.  The only reason the Coast Guard and FBI did not see
it this way is because they are discharging into our water supply and
never expend the funds to retrieve them as the law requires.  

It is time for the DOD and related law enforcement agencies to
completely switch to less toxic green bullets and stop externalizing
their training costs onto the environment.

Steven B. Pollack, Attorney
Executive Director, Blue Eco Legal Council
3390 Commercial Ave.
Northbrook, IL 60062
847-436-9566
www.ecoesq.com
www.landfill7.com
www.fireclaimlaw.com


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Green Ammo order
> From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
> Date: Thu, October 23, 2008 1:56 pm
> To: Military Environmental Forum <military@lists.cpeo.org>
> Alliant Lake City gets 'green' ammo order
> Kansas City Business Journal
> October 23, 2008
> Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co. LLC received a $6 million 
> order for M855 "green" ammunition from the U.S. Department of Defense.
> ...
> According to the Defense Technical Information Center, a field activity 
> of the Department of Defense, the DOD's Green Bullet Program seeks to 
> reduce the use of lead-antimony in ammunition used at training ranges 
> and replace it with nontoxic alloys to prevent lead contamination in 
> soil and surrounding areas. The military started using green bullets at 
> training ranges in October 1999.
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/10/20/daily19.html
> -- 
> Lenny Siegel
> Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
> a project of the Pacific Studies Center
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Military mailing list
> Military@lists.cpeo.org
> http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org

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