[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Is the U.S. Finally Ending the Toxic Practice of Burning Old Munitions in Open Pits?"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Is the U.S. Finally Ending the Toxic Practice of Burning Old Munitions in Open Pits?

By Daniel Ross 
AlterNet 
August 26, 2016

By the year 2020, the U.S. is expected to have on its hands a growing stockpile of munitions nearing 1.1 million tons that are no longer considered useful to the military. As a means of disposal, these munitions, including small arms cartridges, rockets, mortars, artillery shells, tactical missiles and other wastes, have for decades been burned or detonated on large trays out in the open at military bases across the country.

Canada and a number of European countries like Germany and the Netherlands have banned the practice, for good reason. Plumes of toxic smoke from burn pits have been documented drifting over surrounding communities, while the destroyed munitions expel pollutants that leach into the soil and groundwater. These pollutants include an array of highly toxic chemicals such as dioxins and furans, PCBs, chromium, dinitrotoluene (DNT), and perchlorate. Many of these toxic chemicals are known carcinogens, while all of them can cause chronic illnesses in humans and wildlife.

While the open burning of hazardous waste was prohibited at the federal level back in the 1970s, the military was given an exemption to open-burn munitions under the proviso that no alternative disposal methods were available.

The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes an amendment directing the National Academy of Sciences to study safer, environmentally cleaner methods of disposing of munitions. Only, many of the alternatives methods likely to be studied have been around for years, which leaves critics of the practice wondering why it has taken so long to reach this critical juncture.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.alternet.org/environment/us-finally-ending-toxic-practice-burning-old-munitions-open-pits

--

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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