Depot environmental effects

All funds for the construction of baseline incineration facilities at Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky, and Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado, should be frozen until the effectiveness of alternative technologies and their ability to comply with safety and environmental requirements were reported to Congress. 

Rocket Motor and Fuel Disposal With the reduction of military forces in the United States and worldwide, rocket motors are being removed from service and reduced in number. The motors are being shipped to munitions depots for storage and for disposal. The disposal method presently used is open bum/open detonation, which can result in explosions that scatter motor parts and contaminate the environment with unbumed propellant. An effective and environmentally sound alternative to open bum/open detonation is required. 

The U.S. Army Environmental Center (USAEQ recently completed a demonstration of windrow composting of explosives-contaminated sods at Umatilla Depot Activity (UMDA) in Hermiston, Oregon. This demonstration represented the second phase of field studies conducted at UMDA, and was part of an ongoing effort to develop a composting system which can provide an economical and effective alternative to incineration for the treatment of explosives-contaminated soils and sediments. 

One class of compounds does deserve special attention—those chemicals that are very fat soluble. These include the older chlorinated pesticides, such as DDT, and some environmental contaminants, such as the PCBs (the polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins. In these cases, low levels of intact chemicals, if absorbed, may encounter the body s final defense mechanism. This defense is to store the compounds in fat and milk, a paradoxical strategy that the body uses to sequester away chemicals into a storage site (or depot) where they can do no harm to the rest of the body, ft s conceptually the prison system of the body. The absorption and distribution into fat greatly reduces the concentration of chemicals at other body sites and thus serves to blunt the impact of the exposure. Similarly, this simple method of diluting the absorbed chemical often keeps the concentration below an effect level and gives the overworked liver time to try to destroy them. 

The sea dumps created two major concerns. The first was that the weapons were being shipped from their storage depots by train to the loading docks. Fear of an accident along the way was paramount. Second, sea dumping and its effects on marine life were sources of environmental and commercial concern and protest. 

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