How 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho

[nosmokes]

So are we going to haul the millions of tons of contaminated soil from Iraq and Afghanistan over here as well? Wouldn't it just be a whole lot simpler and cheaper to obey the international laws and not use the DP in populated areas to start with? Or we at the point where we just can't take any toys away from the Generals at all?
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original-alternet

How 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho

How 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted September 17, 2008.

Questions remain about how depleted uranium waste from the first Gulf War was transferred, and whether health risks were posed.



On April 26, 2008, the BBC Alabama arrived in Longview, Wash., carrying 6,700 tons of Kuwaiti sand. The sand had become contaminated with depleted uranium when U.S. military vehicles and munitions caught fire at Doha Army base in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. The depleted uranium was being repatriated. The sand was a gift of the Kuwaiti government.

So was the cost of repatriation. Neither government will discuss just how much the tab was.

The Longview Daily News reported that Mike Wilcox, vice president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 21, initially had been "concerned about the safety of longshoremen and the entire community when he heard a shipment of depleted uranium was coming into Longview."

But the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that the sand contained "unimportant quantities" of radioactive material, and officials from the Department of Health would be available to test radiation levels -- just in case any of the sand spilled.

At the last minute, the Army notified port authorities that tests had revealed that the sand was also contaminated with lead -- in fact, four times more lead than the EPA's limit for hazardous materials. Transshipment was delayed for a few days awaiting a green light from the EPA.

Wilcox told the Daily News that he hoped the delivery would be a one-time thing.

Over the next month, longshoremen loaded 160 containers onto railcars bound for an Idaho-based waste disposal site owned by a company called American Ecology. When the sand arrived at the Idaho site, the company did its own tests and, as Chad Hyslop, project director for American Ecology, told the Daily News, "found no hazardous levels of lead."

Doug Rokke, who quit his job directing the cleanup of radioactive battlefields for the Army, contacted American Ecology and discovered "that they had absolutely no knowledge of U.S. Army Regulation 700-48, U.S. Army PAM 700-48, U.S. Army Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, and all of the medical orders dealing with depleted uranium contamination, environmental remediation procedures, safety and medical care."

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complete article here

[texastoast]

1. Nothing to see here. Move along now

See shiny Sarah. No talk about issues, please.

[Ian David]

2. "We're gonna put it on my new golf course so people can play at night. It's gonna be huh-Yoooge! "nt

[hootinholler]

3. Interesting...

There have been some issues with groundwater contamination in Eastern Washington.

-Hoot

[Greyhound]

4. No worries, they're very proud of their closed minds in Idaho, so it is fitting

that they get the yield of their efforts.

[demigoddess]

5. my bet is that they will mix it in with potting soil or mulch and sell it

the same way they do with old automobile tires. Equally toxic to people and other living things.

:crazy: :crazy:

[eowyn_of_rohan]

6. Hmmm... I think I'll stop buying Idaho potatoes.

[aquart]

7. They've been so tasty lately.

Who knew this was the secret ingredient?

[progressoid]

8. Ya, but you can eat forever from one radioactive spud.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. You know ...

... for 5 1/2 years McCain didn't have potatoes, nor could Palin see Idaho from her house.

Think of the children.

[Solly Mack]

9. repatriation? Damn

[bbgrunt]

10. but, but , but, there was no lead detected!

[MattBaggins]

11. Isn't this just great

I was there for that incident. We fondly call that day "The Doha Dash". The artillery vehicle that caught fire was directly in front of my Bradley Fighting Vehicle and my Platoon was there with our fire extinguishers initially trying to put out the fire before we called for an evacuation of the Motor Pool.

The biggest lie told about that fiasco is that no one was ever put at risk. I and the rest of my platoon was on the roads leading to and between the motor pool three days after the fire removing debris and sweeping (yes sweeping) the streets clean. Swartzkopf was coming for a visit and they wanted the mess cleaned up before he got there. We literally had a British EOD team sweep the roads in front of us and then we physically picked up debris; including DU rounds from exploded tank munitions. We simply picked up everything and tossed it into the back of a deuce and a half. We used nothing but our normal uniforms and leather gloves which we did not dispose of after use.

I wonder what surprises myself and my platoon members are going to get from sweeping up dust from all that exploded crap. If the sand is considered contaminated how much did those fawkers lie to me?

[Hekate]

13. I'm sorry to hear of your exposure. If you want to read about Depleted Uranium you can go to ...

... the website for Veterans for Peace. This may be what you got into, or it may be something slightly different. I wish you the best.

Hekate

[elehhhhna]

12. We must Irradiate it over here, so we don't have to Irradiate it over there.