Re: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Green ammo

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

Twenty billion for cleanup of environmental contamination for which the
military has strict liability is not really that much money.  Twenty
billion is not what it used to be, especially when one considers the
size of the military budget and the federal budget.  And the money spent
on cleanup at least advances the ball whereas the military currently
spends countless hundreds of millions assessing, assessing, and
assessing.

This redundant assessment the DOD conducts in order to mask their lack
of actual cleanup has little benefit to the environment and really does
represent wasted money.

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
> From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
> Date: Thu, March 05, 2009 11:10 am
> To: Military Environmental Forum <military@lists.cpeo.org>
> Army Ammo Going Green
> Bob Ewing
> Digital Journal
> March 4, 2009
> The Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) cleanup problem is a very large-scale 
> undertaking involving 10 million acres of land at some 1400 sites. 
> Estimated clean-up cost of current UXOs is tens of billions [pdf]of dollars.
> Every year, The U.S. military goes through about 16 million rounds of 
> training ammunition, 2 million of which are live ammo. Between 3% and 8% 
> of the most ubiquitous rounds—40mm training cartridges used for grenade 
> launchers and the like—are duds, so they just burrow into undergrowth 
> without exploding.
> Soldiers, in training, have fired explosives like the M918 40 mm shell. 
> This is less powerful than battlefield munitions, but still explodes to 
> simulate the "bang" of a real round.
> A few of those old-style munitions—about 3 to 8 percent of current 
> shells are duds that get stuck in the ground without exploding, creating 
> a cleanup nightmare for the military.
> The bill to clean up all 10 million acres on 1,400 different sites 
> containing unexploded shells could cost about $20 billion. No one want 
> to pay this bill so the military is turning to a new idea: Green 
> training ammunition.
> ...
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268515
> -- 
> 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
> _______________________________________________
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