[CPEO-MEF] REUSE, MUNITIONS: Joliet Arsenal (IL)

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Battle to clean up arsenal site is far from over

Former Joliet ammunition plant's toxic legacy endures underground

By Joel Hood
Chicago Tribune
June 3, 2009


To walk the grounds of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in 2009 is to 
see nature's best effort to heal the scars of a once-heralded 
manufacturing empire.

Rich, green grass has returned to the small ridge known simply as "the 
burning grounds," where TNT and old munitions were melted and recast 
decades ago. Lush cottonwood and hackberry trees now stand on the high 
grass where smoke stacks spewed noxious fumes into the air. Beavers and 
birds cool themselves in the winding creek that was a dumping ground for 
harmful solvents and chemicals.

But below ground, the picture is different. The chemical residue from 
the production of ammunition during and after World War II continues to 
infiltrate the soil and water tables at the 24,000-acre former arsenal 
south of Joliet

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-joliet-arsenal-sw-zone-03jun03,0,155480.story 


--


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