[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "EPA Pushes for Massive Munitions Burn at Louisiana's Camp Minden"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

An Explosive Crisis: EPA Pushes for Massive Munitions Burn at Louisiana's Camp Minden

By Mike Ludwig
Truthout 
January 16, 2015

Melissa Downer remembers the evening of October 15, 2012, well. She was kenneling her dogs for the night outside her family home in Minden, Louisiana, when she heard a loud crashing sound that shook the entire house. Downer had no idea what happened until she turned on the television and saw her small town of 13,000 on the news.

A massive explosion had occurred at Camp Minden, a military facility about four miles from the town of Minden and 15 miles from Downer's house. A storage magazine containing about 124,000 pounds of black powder and a tractor-trailer containing 42,000 pounds of M-6, a propellant used for firing heavy artillery, had exploded, sending a 7,000-foot mushroom cloud into the air. Downer's house was not damaged, but the blast shattered windows in nearby homes and businesses and damaged 11 railcars.

...

After months of bureaucratic disputes between the Army and state and federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced an emergency plan to burn 15 million pounds of M-6 - up to 80,000 pounds a day over the course of a year - on open "burn trays" at Camp Minden, a disposal process that environmental advocates say is outdated and has been outlawed in other countries. The operation would be one of the largest open munitions burn in US history.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28575-an-explosive-crisis-epa-pushes-for-massive-munitions-burn-at-louisiana-s-camp-minden

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
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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