[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, DISPOSAL: "Louisiana Parish Fights Plan to Burn Tons of Propellant No One Wants"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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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