[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Here's how Letterkenny [Army Depot, PA] will safely destroy thousands of rocket motors"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Here's how Letterkenny will safely destroy thousands of rocket motors

by Jim Hook
Chambersburg Public Opinion (PA)
December 17, 2017 


CHAMBERSBURG - Congress more than 25 years ago banned American industries from disposing of hazardous waste in the open air.

Lawmakers, however, gave the military time to find another way besides open burning to get rid of munitions. Today it’s still standard practice at places like Letterkenny Munitions Center to open burn.

ProPublica, an independent news organization, has investigated the military’s disposal of explosives and munitions. Environmental Protection Agency PowerPoint presentations made to senior agency staff describe something of a runaway national program, based on “a dirty technology” with “virtually no emissions controls.” The process poses potential health problems for surrounding communities and potential contamination that would be expensive to clean up.

EPA’s system for determining how much chemical burning is safe amounts to little more than educated guesses, according to ProPublica. The limits are established using layers of computer modeling that can be highly speculative and that often bear little resemblance to the day-to-day reality.


…

For the entire article, see
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/story/news/2017/12/17/heres-how-letterkenny-safely-destroy-thousands-rocket-motors/953336001/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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