Cleanup of Chemical and Explosive Munitions: How to Make Military Ranges Environmentally Safe

Product Description
Audience: Environmental scientists, explosive and ordnance demolition personnel, first responders, building contractors, insurance agents, as well as terrorism, transportation and industry officials involved with chemicals.



Unexploded military ordnance and toxic chemicals, some dating back to World War I, are worldwide problems, especially at closed military bases that will be redeveloped for housing and other civilian use. In Europe and Asia, many of the munition sites are former battlegrounds; in Russia and its former territories, the sites are storage and waste disposal sites.



This book describes the steps necessary to properly clean up a military ordnance site. It includes a detailed list of the explosives, chemical warfare material and breakdown products that should be tested for in soil and groundwater. It includes archival studies, remote sensing techniques, geophysical techniques, safety issues, a primer on chemical weapons, explosives and ordnance, unknown range list, known range list, and a case study of primary documents written for the cleanup of one of the worst sites in the United States, Spring Valley in the District of Columbia. The book covers new and emerging military munitions contaminants such as perchlorates, n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and trichloroethylene (TCE). The book is augmented with maps, photographs, and eight appendices. About the Author
Richard Albright is an expert in weapons of mass destruction with an international reputation. A former US Army officer, he is also an attorney, holds an M.S. in environmental health and a Ph.D. in environmental science. He has testified before Congress and state legislatures on chemical weapons and received the prestigious Cafritz Award in 2001 for his work on cleaning up the Spring Valley World War I facility in Washington, DC. Richard Albright has written prolifically on this subject and now works for the Department of the Environment Defense Unit in Washington, DC.

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From the Foreword


Imagine, for a moment, that a foreign nation has dispatched a band of terrorists to the United States. The intruders silently move across the landscape depositing toxic chemicals at a thousand sites around the country. Some of the toxic compounds quickly enter the rivers and underground reservoirs that supply America with drinking water. Other chemicals contaminate our neighborhoods and backyards where our children play. Still others sit like time bombs, destined to contaminate our water supplies after months, years, or even decades. The toxic chemicals carried by these enemies are the products of the most sophisticated laboratories on Earth. They cause birth defects, liver disease, and cancer. Their effects may be felt for generations.



Unquestionably, if this imagined threat were real, we would turn to the Pentagon to combat this threat to our national security. After all, the Pentagon’s job is to defend the nation against outside enemies.



But what do we do when the threat comes, not from abroad, but from the Department of Defense (DOD) itself? What if our own worst enemy is the same institution that is charged with defending us?



We turn to environmental regulators like Rich Albright.