[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Marines search Bear Island (NC)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Marines to comb state sands
Old ammo could lurk at park

BY MARTHA QUILLIN
Raleigh News & Observer (NC)
June 23, 2009

SWANSBORO - Beachcombers at Hammocks Beach State Park's Bear Island 
might find shells from cockles, whelks, razor clams or a Marines Corps 
M1 81 mm mortar.

During World War II, long before it became a state park, the island may 
have been downrange of Marines in training. Now the Corps wonders 
whether it might have left munitions in the sand or the nearby salt marshes.

A review of historical maps revealed that over the past 60-plus years, 
some of the fallout areas for training targets along Camp Lejeune's 
coastal edge inadvertently extended onto property adjacent to the base, 
and the Marines have begun a $2.4 million search for aging, errant ammo. 
They will be searching a total of 1,800 acres, including private land 
and 182 acres of the state park, for unexploded or fragmented 
machine-gun rounds, rockets, mortar shells or other munitions that 
missed their targets or exploded close to target boundaries and peppered 
someone else's property.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1579696.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


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