Military Toxics Project
Networking for Environmental Justice
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Military Toxics Project |
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Munitions and Ranges Military munitions pose environmental and human health dangers at each step of their life cycle. Production sites (such as materials processing facilities and ammunition plants), testing sites (such as labs and proving grounds), firing sites (training ranges and areas of conflict), and disposal sites (including burial pits and open burning/open detonation sites) may all contaminate the environment and threaten public health. Dangers at all types of sites exist from both unexploded ordnance (UXO), which poses an immediate safety danger, and toxic munitions chemicals, which pose acute and long-term dangers to human health and the environment. Up to 25 million acres of land and water at several thousand sites in the U.S. are already contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO), toxic explosive compounds and their byproducts, toxic propellants, and heavy metals. More sites are being identified every year. The Department of Defense (DoD) estimates that about 16 million acres of land already transferred to other agencies or the public are potentially contaminated with UXO and munitions constituents. The Army alone has as many as 2,000 sites contaminated with explosives. Federal facilities contain at least thirty large and medium-sized sites containing over one million yards of soil contaminated with the explosive TNT. A 1998 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of just 266 closed, transferred, and transferring (CTT) and inactive military ranges found that UXO was found on 85% of the ranges. Over 50% of the ranges were known or suspected to contain chemical or biological weapons. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be required to clean up existing contamination on military training ranges, to say nothing of ongoing pollution from munitions production and use. DoD has estimated its liability for cleanup of UXO at over $100 billion, and the cost to cleanup only closed, transferred, and transferring training ranges at $40-$140 billion. A Navy researcher has estimated that clearing UXO at the Navy’s ranges would cost $36 billion, and treating chemical contamination in the soil would cost $33 billion. Sources of toxic contamination from munitions and their constituents at military testing and training ranges may be divided into several categories. Small arms ammunition contaminated thousands of ranges across the country with lead. UXO poses an immediate safety danger and also corrodes, leaching hazardous munitions constituents into soil and groundwater. Heavy metals and toxic explosive compounds enter the environment when munitions don’t detonate completely and when UXO corrode. Propellants contaminate firing positions, impact areas, and neighborhoods downwind. Pyrotechnics release white phosphorus and various other toxins. Unused munitions buried by troops during training or for disposal decay and release their constituents. The open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) of munitions in the open air releases tens of thousands of pounds of metals, explosives, propellants, and other toxins into the air, which travel for miles. There is abundant and growing evidence of the damage to human health and the environment caused by military munitions and ranges. - At the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod, toxic munitions constituents contaminated the only drinking water supply for 500,000 neighbors of the base, forcing the shutdown of municipal wells. Burning of excess artillery propellant at firing positions was linked to increased lung cancer in people living nearby. Throughout the 1980s, women on the Upper Cape near the base were 64% more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than women in the rest of the state. - Since 1940, the U.S. Navy has used three-quarters of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico for bombardment, munitions disposal, and other activities. There is strong evidence that heavy metals and other munitions toxins move in the air from the bombing range to the civilian areas. The toxic explosive compound RDX was found in drinking water supplies in civilian areas in the late 1970s. In 2000, excessive levels of mercury were found in the hair and fingernails of 45% of Vieques residents tested. Vegetables and plants growing in civilian areas are highly contaminated with lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals. From 1985-1989, Vieques children aged 0-9 were 117% more likely to contract cancer than children of the same age on the main island of Puerto Rico. Children aged 10-19 were 256% more likely to contract cancer. A 2001 study found that Vieques residents are 73% more likely to suffer from heart disease than residents of the main island, 64% more likely to develop hypertension, 58% more likely to have diabetes, and 18% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma. - White phosphorus and other toxic munitions constituents contaminated the fragile estuarine salt marsh of Eagle River Flats at Fort Richardson, Alaska. Subsistence fishing grounds have been rendered unusable by the Native Alaskans who have historically used these resources. Munitions contamination killed thousands of waterfowl every year for almost two decades before the Army released even a draft cleanup plan. UXO may exist in, on, and/or under up to 2 million acres of lands and waters outside the current boundaries of the base. - The Army has trained in Makua Valley on O’ahu, Hawai’i since the 1940s. DoD appropriated the entire valley when World War II broke out, evicting families, but did not return the land after the war as promised. The valley is home to over 40 endangered species, including one found nowhere else on earth. Training and disposal operations at Makua have caused fires that damaged these species; destroyed homes, the local church and Indigenous Hawai’ian temples; and contaminated soil and groundwater. The Army’s occupation of Makua denies the community access to these sacred lands. The regulation (or often the lack thereof) of military munitions and ranges is a complex matter involving federal, state, Tribal, and local laws as well as various governmental and nongovernmental actors. A plethora of agencies and authorities are involved in some aspect of regulation of military munitions and ranges, including: the EPA (both headquarters and the regions); DoD (including the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board, and the armed services); other federal agencies; tribes; states; and the public (through various public participation programs, citizen suits, and political action). A variety of laws, regulations, and both formal and informal agreements may be invoked depending on the circumstances. Regulation of military munitions and ranges occurs primarily under two statutes: the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, known as the Superfund law); and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). CERCLA provides for cleanup of contaminated sites and accidents, spills, or other releases of hazardous substances to the environment. RCRA governs solid waste, including hazardous waste, from cradle to grave. Either or both of these laws may be applied to munitions contamination depending on the circumstances. The Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act have also been applied by states and EPA to protect public health and the environment from munitions contamination. The DoD has historically fought attempts to regulate military munitions and firing ranges, and usually attempts to force any response to munitions contamination to occur under CERCLA, where DoD is the lead agency. DoD oversees CERCLA response actions at its own sites and EPA cannot impose a more protective cleanup process than the DoD chooses. At all CERCLA sites not listed on the National Priority List, EPA cannot act to protect public health and the environment from munitions contamination even in the face of an imminent and substantial endangerment. In 1992, Congress passed the Federal Facilities Compliance Act, which for the first time subjected federal agencies to RCRA’s cradle-to-grave regulation of hazardous wastes. Because RCRA was originally written to govern private sector wastes, Congress directed EPA to write a regulation balancing the need for oversight of military munitions with the DoD’s need to train and fight. Instead of balancing these interests, EPA undermined the intent of Congress by completely exempting munitions at active firing ranges from RCRA unless DoD specifically collects them for disposal. EPA’s surrender to DoD ensured that millions of pieces of UXO will remain on military ranges leaching their toxic contaminants into the environment. RCRA does allow EPA to issue binding orders to protect public health and the environment from imminent and substantial endangerment by munitions contamination. DoD is seeking a Congressional exemption to remove this authority. Communities near active ranges continue to demand protection from munitions contamination. Human health, the environment, cultural and
historic sites, and subsistence food supplies have already been harmed by
munitions contamination. More people are exposed to UXO and chemical
contamination from munitions every day because of failures of policy and will by
DOD, EPA headquarters, and other federal regulatory agencies. Many states and
some EPA regions have taken the lead in addressing the problem, but often
without adequate support from Washington. Action is desperately needed to
protect communities, ensure cleanups protective of human health and the
environment, and prevent additional contamination. |
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Military Toxics Project -
mtp@miltoxproj.org Full contact information is
available here. |
