[CPEO-MEF] CHEMWEAPONS, CLEANUP: Rocky Mountain Arsenal case study

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Why We Need Good Information to Clean Up Bad Places: A Case Study

Susan Maret
San Jose State University (CA)
June, 2010

Roughly until the 1970's, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps was responsible 
for "defensive and offensive aspects of biological and chemical warfare, 
the latter comprising incendiary and smoke activities as well as those 
of gas; and the defensive aspects of radiological warfare." One of the 
Corps lead chemical and biological weapons manufacturing facilities was 
the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, located near Denver, Colorado.

The history of the Corps - including the Arsenal - is tied to secrecy, 
restriction of information, poor recordkeeping, information recycling, 
and information manipulation.  These factors contribute to generational 
pollution, or the forced involvement of future generations in the 
pollution of the past.

This is why I believe we need good information to clean bad places.

The history of Rocky Mountain Arsenal, [1] like many of the sites in the 
Chemical Corp complex, provides a context for understanding government 
secrecy and the relationship of weapons development, waste practices, 
and agency recordkeeping. In part, too much of one kind of information, 
and not enough of another, the Arsenal's pollution history is 
incomplete, and future generations are de facto assigned responsibility 
for continuing the inquiry into the Arsenal's contamination and waste 
practices. Rocky Mountain Arsenal is the Department of Defense's most 
expensive Superfund cleanup project, estimated at a $75 million per year 
to taxpayers.


...

For the entire report, go to
http://senna.sjsu.edu/smaret/iecology/goodinfobad.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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