XPost: alt.politics.usa, aus.history, aus.politics   
   From: jonahreal@yopmail.com   
      
   U.S. Military World's Largest Polluter - Hundreds Of Bases Gravely   
   Contaminated   
      
   Producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies   
   combined, the U.S. Department of Defense has left its toxic legacy   
   throughout the world in the form of depleted uranium, oil, jet fuel,   
   pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange and lead, among other pollutants.   
      
   by Whitney Webb   
      
   MINNEAPOLIS- Last week, mainstream media outlets gave minimal attention to   
   the news that the U.S. Naval station in Virginia Beach had spilled an   
   estimated 94,000 gallons of jet fuel into a nearby waterway, less than a   
   mile from the Atlantic Ocean. While the incident was by no means as   
   catastrophic as some other pipeline spills, it underscores an important yet   
   little-known fact - that the U.S. Department of Defense is both the nation's   
   and the world's, largest polluter.   
      
   Producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies   
   combined, the U.S. Department of Defense has left its toxic legacy   
   throughout the world in the form of depleted uranium, oil, jet fuel,   
   pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange and lead, among others.   
      
   In 2014, the former head of the Pentagon's environmental program told   
   Newsweek that her office has to contend with 39,000 contaminated areas   
   spread across 19 million acres just in the U.S. alone.   
      
   U.S. military bases, both domestic and foreign, consistently rank among some   
   of the most polluted places in the world, as perchlorate and other   
   components of jet and rocket fuel contaminate sources of drinking water,   
   aquifers, and soil. Hundreds of military bases can be found on the   
   Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites, which qualify for   
   clean-up grants from the government.   
      
   Almost 900 of the nearly 1,200 Superfund sites in the U.S. are abandoned   
   military facilities or sites that otherwise support military needs, not   
   counting the military bases themselves.   
      
   "Almost every military site in this country is seriously contaminated," John   
   D. Dingell, a retired Michigan congressman and war veteran, told Newsweek in   
   2014. Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina is one such base.   
   Lejeune's   
   contamination became widespread and even deadly after its groundwater was   
   polluted with a sizable amount of carcinogens from 1953 to 1987.   
      
   Between 1946 and 1958, the US tested 66 nuclear weapons near Bikini atoll.   
   Populations living nearby in the Marshall Islands were exposed to measurable   
   levels of radioactive fallout from these tests. (Map: National Cancer   
   Institute)   
      
   However, it was not until this February that the government allowed those   
   exposed to chemicals at Lejeune to make official compensation claims.   
   Numerous bases abroad have also contaminated local drinking water supplies,   
   most famously the Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa.   
      
   In addition, the U.S., which has conducted more nuclear weapons tests than   
   all other nations combined, is also responsible for the massive amount of   
   radiation that continues to contaminate many islands in the Pacific Ocean.   
   The Marshall Islands, where the U.S. dropped more than sixty nuclear weapons   
   between 1946 and 1958, are a particularly notable example. Inhabitants of   
   the Marshall Islands and nearby Guam continue to experience an exceedingly   
   high rate of cancer.   
      
   The American Southwest was also the site of numerous nuclear weapons tests   
   that contaminated large swaths of land. Navajo Indian reservations have been   
   polluted by long-abandoned uranium mines where nuclear material was obtained   
   by U.S. military contractors.   
      
   One of the most recent testaments to the U.S. military's horrendous   
   environmental record is Iraq. U.S. military action there has resulted in the   
   desertification of 90 percent of Iraqi territory, crippling the country's   
   agricultural industry and forcing it to import more than 80 percent of its   
   food. The U.S.' use of depleted uranium in Iraq during the Gulf War also   
   caused a massive environmental burden for Iraqis. In addition, the U.S.   
   military's policy of using open-air burn pits to dispose of waste from the   
   2003 invasion has caused a surge in cancer among U.S. servicemen and Iraqi   
   civilians alike.   
      
   Four-year-old Alla Saleem, who suffers from a tumor in her eye, lies on her   
   bed as she waits for medication Monday, January 15, 2001, at the Gazwan   
   Children's Hospital in the southern Iraq town of Basra, about 60 kilometers   
   (37 miles) from the border with Kuwait. Iraqi authorities claim that about   
   300 tons of bombs with depleted uranium were used by the allied forces   
   during the Gulf War bombing campaign, and this is responsible for the   
   increase of cancer cases in the area. According to Doctor Jawal Al-Ali,   
   chief cancer consultant of the Basra teaching hospital and member of the   
   Royal College of physicians in London, the cases have multiplied by 12 since   
   1991. (AP/Enric Marti)   
      
   While the U.S. military's past environmental record suggests that its   
   current policies are not sustainable, this has by no means dissuaded the   
   U.S. military from openly planning future contamination of the environment   
   through misguided waste disposal efforts. Last November, the U.S. Navy   
   announced its plan to release 20,000 tons of environmental "stressors,"   
   including heavy metals and explosives, into the coastal waters of the U.S.   
   Pacific Northwest over the course of this year.   
      
   The plan, laid out in the Navy's Northwest Training and Testing   
   Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), fails to mention that these   
    "stressors" are described by the EPA as known hazards, many of which are   
   highly toxic at both acute and chronic levels.   
      
   The 20,000 tons of "stressors" mentioned in the EIS do not account for the   
   additional 4.7 to 14 tons of "metals with potential toxicity" that the Navy   
   plans to release annually, from now on, into inland waters along the Puget   
   Sound in Washington state.   
      
   In response to concerns about these plans, a Navy spokeswoman said that   
   heavy metals and even depleted uranium are no more dangerous than any other   
   metal, a statement that represents a clear rejection of scientific fact. It   
   seems that the very U.S. military operations meant to "keep Americans safe"   
   come at a higher cost than most people realize - a cost that will be felt   
   for generations to come both within the United States and abroad.   
      
   https://www.mintpressnews.com/u-s-military-is-worlds-largest-pol   
   uter-hundreds-of-bases-gravely-contaminated/227776/   
      
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