2015 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 21:03:43 -0700 (PDT)
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, DISPOSAL: "Louisiana Parish Fights Plan to Burn Tons of Propellant No One Wants"
 
Louisiana Parish Fights Plan to Burn Tons of Propellant No One Wants

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
New York Times
March 18, 2015

MINDEN, La. - Just before midnight on Oct. 15, 2012, Sheriff Gary Sexton of Webster Parish was driving home from the airport when the sky lit up like midday. He flipped on his walkie-talkie to hear everyone asking: What on earth were those big booms?

As the sheriff would soon learn, two massive explosions had taken place at Camp Minden, a 15,000-acre site owned by the state in the pine woods just south of here, where private companies engage in military-related work. When the authorities began examining the blast site, they found something startling: thousands of tons of M6 propellant, used in the firing of artillery rounds, stuffed into plastic bags and piled into sagging cardboard boxes, many of them out in open fields.

...

The material belonged to Explo Systems, a private contractor. The 18 million pounds includes some explosives like TNT, but nearly all of it is M6 propellant, which can spontaneously ignite, a risk that increases significantly over time. Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency say it is the largest such stockpile in the country.

Last week, a couple of dozen people, forming what is called the Minden Dialogue Committee, gathered at a community center here to discuss how to proceed. The group included scientists, environmental activists, government officials and local residents like Sam Mims, a retired Army colonel, who appeared as an "irritated, concerned citizen representing my 17 cows." They had been meeting almost constantly, at least by telephone, since early February.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/us/louisiana-parish-fights-plan-to- burn-tons-of-propellant-no-one-wants.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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