[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Senators/Congress Members call for contained detonation on Vieques

[Lenny Siegel]

AOC and Bernie urge Senate to provide safer military cleanup for Puerto Rico
“After decades of bombing exercises by our military resulted in severe harm to Vieques, we owe it to our fellow U.S. citizens on the island to clean up after ourselves in a safe, responsible way.”

By Andrew Emett 
Nation of Change
July 29, 2019

In a recent letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and 15 of their colleagues urged the Senate to allocate $10 million from next year’s defense budget to provide an environmentally safer cleanup of military waste on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Beginning in 2003, the U.S. Navy has used open-air detonation chambers in an attempt to reduce the exposure to heavy metals and toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange and mercury. Although the U.S. military argues that open-air detonation chambers are “the quickest and most efficient way to complete the cleanup” process, a report from the Congressional Research Service found that closed detonation methods are more effective at containing pollutants and toxic emissions during military cleanup efforts.

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For the entire article, see
https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/07/29/aoc-and-bernie-urge-senate-to-provide-safer-military-cleanup-for-puerto-rico/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel at cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org