[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "The Human and Environmental Toll of Open Burning"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Toxic and Deadly, the Human and Environmental Toll of Open Burning

By Daniel Ross
Truthout 
July 19, 2016

The open burning and detonation of munitions is highly toxic to humans and the environment, and is banned in Canada and many European countries. Now, a decades-long effort by campaigners to end the practice in the United States could soon bear fruit.

Last month, the Senate approved a version of the National Defense Authorization Act that includes an amendment directing the National Academy of Sciences to study alternatives to open burning. Approval of a final version of the bill is expected to come in late September, before the end of the fiscal year.  

In the meantime, at military bases across the country, a range of munitions including small arms cartridges, rockets, mortars, artillery shells and tactical missiles no longer considered of use to the military are burned on large trays out in the open, causing toxic clouds to blow over surrounding communities, and allowing contaminants to leach into the soil and groundwater, with the potential to impact nearby drinking water systems. At some facilities, the practice has been ongoing for many decades. The amount of munitions the military is seeking to dispose of is staggering -- a 2015 Governmental Accountability Office Report estimates that by 2020, the stockpile could exceed 1.1 million tons.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36783-toxic-and-deadly-the-human-and-environmental-toll-of-open-burning

--

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/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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