[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Vieques (PR) cleanup debate

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

New Battle on Vieques, Over Navy's Cleanup of Munitions

By MIREYA NAVARRO
New York Times
August 7, 2009

VIEQUES, P.R. - The United States Navy ceased military training 
operations on this small island in 2003, and windows no longer rattle 
from the shelling from ships and air-to-ground bombings.

Gone are the protests that drew celebrities like Benicio Del Toro and 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Real estate prices and tourism have boomed: a 
157-room Starwood W hotel is expected to open by December on the island, 
which is seven miles east of Puerto Rico's mainland.

But Vieques, once the largest training area for the United States 
Atlantic Fleet Forces, is still largely defined by its old struggles. 
Once again, residents have squared off against the American military.

The Navy has begun removing hazardous unexploded munitions from its old 
training ground by detonating them in the open air. It also proposes to 
burn through nearly 100 acres of dense tropical vegetation to locate and 
explode highly sensitive cluster bombs.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/science/earth/07vieques.html?_r=1

--


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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