[CPEO-MEF] CSWAB UPDATE: Hundreds Call on EPA to Stop Open Air Burning of PFAS and other Toxic Chemicals

[info at cswab.org]

Hundreds Call on EPA to Stop Open Air Burning of PFAS and other Toxic
Chemicals

By Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB)

 

NATIONAL - This week more than 260 people - representing more than 100
environmental and social justice organizations from the U.S. and its
territories - co-signed an open letter calling on U.S. EPA Administrator
Michael Regan to end the dangerous practice of open air burning and
detonation to treat hazardous munitions wastes, including PFAS-laden flares.

 

The demilitarization of excess, obsolete, or unserviceable flares and other
energetic waste currently relies on open burning and open detonation (OB/OD)
- a practice that produces an ongoing uncontrolled release of PFAS and other
toxic chemicals to the environment.

Pyrotechnic compositions of magnesium/Teflon/Viton (MTV) are widely used in
military flares and for igniting the solid propellant of a rocket motor.
Often referred to as "decoy" flares, countermeasure flares are comprised of
as much as 45% PFAS.

 

PFAS are not destroyed in an open fire or open detonation and therefore are
dispersed to the air and the surrounding environment where they accumulate
in people, as well as fish and wildlife.

Nationwide, there are approximately 60 active private and public sector
facilities that routinely conduct OB/OD of hazardous waste. All are
currently permitted by the EPA or allowed by the agency to operate under
"interim status" without any permit at all.

 

The munitions industry is the only industry in the United States that is
still being permitted to burn hazardous waste to the open air - a practice
that was formally banned by Congress in the 1980's. The EPA has permitted
the practice to continue for decades, despite the long-standing federal
mandate.

 

Moreover, there are literally hundreds of former OB/OD sites across the U.S.
that now require cleanup. In addition to widespread environmental damage,
community members, base workers and service members have endured chronic
exposure to toxic metals, dioxins, perchlorates, explosives, solvents,
depleted uranium and PFAS.

 

The EPA's own research has identified dozens of advanced technologies that
are alternatives to OB/OD.  As recently as 2019, the EPA published an
83-page report titled Alternative Technologies to Open Burning and Open
Detonation of Energetic Hazardous Wastes which identifies dozens of
technologies which have been deployed and are commercially available.

 

The national letter was organized by Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger,
a Wisconsin-based organization that works for a healthy and sustainable
environment by engaging and empowering affected communities.

 

Complete URL for this CSWAB Update is

https://cswab.org/hundreds-call-on-epa-to-stop-open-air-burning-of-pfas-and-
other-toxic-chemicals/

 

OR https://bit.ly/2YmCrJQ

 

-END-

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