Sunday, September 4, 2011

It's a long fall through the looking glass.

This article about the good work done by Team Radford - the environmental protection team at our local Arsenal, is somewhat mystifying to me from a technical standpoint.


Then again, I'm not a rocket scientist. 

But I do wonder, ever so politely, if someone can tell our group what happened to this novel disposal method for Nitrocellulous NC that garnered such praise in 2004?


Radford Arsenal Environmental Award Nomination 2004

 www.denix.osd.mil/awards/upload/radford_army_amm_plant_p2-it.pdf


While saving our government money is always a laudable goal, we would also like to confirm that the environmental benefits of this system passed muster.

It seems odd that toxic releases from the plant (as reported on the Virginia TRI) started going up in 2008, the year which RAAP disclosed they  had corrected a calculation error from TRI data provided in previous years.  

The current TRI report and so much more data  is conveniently linked by EPA from here:


http://iaspub.epa.gov/enviro/fii_query_dtl.disp_program_facility?pgm_sys_id_in=VASFN0305556&pgm_sys_acrnm_in=CERCLIS



The Conclusion of the 2004 Environmental report I first referenced  above states:



"Team Radford expects to have a management review completed before the 31 December 2005 deadline, and to be fully compliant with ISO 14001 and DoD EMS standards by mid-2006."

This is yet another example of why our group could really use the EPA TASC funding that was officially denied to us. EPA claims that our community group does not have the demographic profile, nor need for independent funding, that TASC was designed to address. 

So, despite the fact that the RAAP RAB voted not to accept me as a member while also voting not to ask for TAPP funding, we are not worthy of EPA funds to help employ an expert in RCRA communities with a demonstrated need. Huh.

This is still one more thing to look into - all the people from Team Radford in 2004 appear to have moved on to new jobs, so an institutional memory of this NC waste program may be challenging to find. 

But find it we will, with the help of Senator Webb and the treasured Fourth Estate.

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