[CPEO-MEF] VOCs, PERCHLORATE: Redstone Arsenal (AL)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ask Us: What's been done about water contamination from Redstone  
Arsenal?

By Mike Hollis
Huntsville Times (AL)
September 26, 2011

Q: In 2002 or 2003 The Times reported on contamination in the  
groundwater in or around the English Village subdivision on South  
Memorial Parkway. Has any follow up been done on this? What was found  
and was it discovered where these toxic chemicals came from?

A: ATK Thiokol, previously Thiokol Corp., used trichloroethylene, or  
TCE, and another chemical, ammonium perchlorate, at its missile motor  
research and production plant on the southern part of Redstone  
Arsenal. From about 1949 until the early 1990s, the Army says,  
Thiokol's wastewater flowed directly onto the ground.

TCE is linked to liver and kidney damage, and perchlorate, the main  
ingredient of solid rocket fuel, has been thought to alter the body's  
production of thyroid hormones. But perchlorate is also found in  
fireworks, flares and automobile bags, and many in the defense  
industry say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been too  
quick to judge the chemical.

Apparently, no one in Huntsville has gotten sick from perchlorate.  
But there has been concern about contamination spreading from  
wetlands around the old Thiokol plant to the Tennessee River nearby.  
The intake for one of the city's water treatment plants is on the  
river just downstream from the Arsenal.


...

For the entire article, see
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/ask_us_whats_been_done_about_w.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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