Site/Area Maps

I've been asked in the past for a map of the Arsenal. Well, it seems Google  makes available it's satellite images as long as it's a "fair use." Finally an aerial view of the Main Manufacturing Area of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant - RAAP

http://www.newrivertrail.com/node/27

From this link, pan out and go North...you'll see the Arsenal occupying the area known as the Horseshoe Bend.

And here's a nifty map of where the "receiving points" on the New River for the toxic particulate matter that falls from the Open Burning Ground:

https://files.acrobat.com/preview/e8c15de1-a666-4d34-92fd-df79b100a675

Check out the FACEBOOK Page, Please

Well now, this is somewhat embarrassing. Seems I've been tooling along writing and posting on the Facebook page for this effort without realizing I'd left the blog twisting in the wind.  If you are comfortable having a Facebook account, please visit the page - Environmental Patriots of the New River Valley to peruse the documents and other musings about the work.

AND----- BAE Systems along with the U.S. Army is hosting a meeting tomorrow night at 6 pm to discuss the virtues of the Open Burning Ground. Please show up if you can!  6580 Valley Center Drive 24141

Tonight's meeting held by BAE was a testament to the democratic process. People who care showed up and asked quesitons. Morgan Griffith and Josepth Yost had representatives present, as was a former candidate himself, Don Langrehr.  Questions were posed - answers were dodged and the whole thing was covered by actual news media. It's a new day, America...we are Volunteers of America here to say, no more open buring...no way, no how!

So Much for a "Well Informed Electorate"

http://www.wdbj7.com/videogallery/75091145/News/Radford-Arsenal-works-to-cleanup-property

Originally titled "Radford Arsenal Public Meeting Turns Ugly," the video for this story was temporarily unavailable on Friday before being re-routed to appear under the upbeat description, "Radford Arsenal Works to Clean Property." The decision by our local CBS affiliate to censor their report of how the public was mistreated by government representatives would have made George Orwell blush.

It certainly wouldn't do to have the public left with an impression of the truth - that the Arsenal representatives were rude, confrontational and even condescending to the citizens gathered at this community involvement meeting. No, that wouldn't be good public relations for the corporations who have been successful in making record profits while enjoying the "hands off" approach that EPA takes to this government owned "federal facility." Which is why the history of reporting on the Arsenal's environmental violations has been spotty, at best. It's a safe bet that three fourths of the people living in the New River Valley have no idea that the Arsenal operates an Open Burning Ground (OBG) where they are permitted to burn 8,000 pounds of "munitions constituents" per day.

The press remained silent when the Virginia DEQ issued a warning letter to AlliantTechsystems (ATK) in April of 2012 for "excess chromium" in two separate "skid burns." These burns use twelve 1/2 gallons of diesel fuel to soak the hazardous waste on each pan before ignition. Under the current permit, "skid burns" are allowed a specified ratio of barium, aluminum and chromium on each pan. That limit wasn't enough for a burn ATK conducted on the 11th of August 2011, the first day of school for the children in Montgomery County. On that day, the children at Belview Elementary, a short mile and a half downwind of the OBG, were treated to an "excess" amount of chromium in the "skid burn" that day. The burns, which typically begin at 1 pm and can smolder for hours, disperse dioxin along with other metals and air-born toxins to the surrounding communities. Although at one point the for-profit contractor requested that regulators consider all of the chromium burned as existing in the innocuous trivalent form, this dubious suggestion was denied. The fact is that they have been burning hexavalent chromium at the Open Burning Ground, one of the most carcinogenic metals known to science, for decades.

The current contractor operating the facility  is asking the Virginia DEQ to modify the OBG permit to allow more chromium  in every "skid burn." You might think the local media would be all over this outrageous proposal, but you would be wrong. Instead, the only TV news station that had the where-with-all to report that community members are concerned found itself on the receiving end of the Pentagon's wrath. Welcome to a hobbled Fourth Estate which cowers in the face of the Military Industrial Complex and their corporate benefactors. Ike must be spinning in his grave.

Ignorance Must Be Blissful, Jim

Wait! Wait! Don't touch that dial! Breaking news just in to our databanks.....Jim McKenna, Co-Chair of the Arsenal's Restoration Advisory Board and DoD employee, tells citizens concerned about toxins released to the air from the Open Burning Ground (OBG) that there is no way to measure air quality around the OBG. This is a novel perspective given that the permit modification being proposed to allow BAE to burn more hexavalent chromium than the permit allows them to do now will be reviewed in light of risk assessment data. This point of fact seemed to be a foreign concept to the man who runs the community involvement meetings. If he doesn't believe the level of toxic exposure from air emissions created in the open burning of hazardous waste can be measured, why is he so sure it's safe for the children downwind to be breathing?

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.

The Deception of Silence

Why is it that two facilities in the New River Valley with documented toxic contamination in the groundwater and soil operate their hazardous waste clean up with scarce public oversight?
One site where polluted groundwater releases to the New River, the former Intermet or Lynchburg Foundry in Radford,  is a mere 7.58 miles UPstream of the intake for the B'burg/C'burg/VPI Water Authority.
The fomer Intermet Foundry has been on the EPA's RCRA list for years, who knew?
Intermet Foundry RCRA
The RR ties on the adjacent land were recently addressed by the Roanoke Times, without a mention of the EPA's hazardous waste permit next door. Are those ties NOT next to the former Intermet?
where are those RR ties, anyway?
Take a few minutes to read about the inordinately high lead levels in the topsoil at the former Intermet Foundry
See the Consent Order as a PDF here


The other site, the Radford Arsenal, has been conducting clean up for decades without most people who live here having any idea of what lies in the cavernous ground that surrounds the Horseshoe Bend starting at Route 114 on the New River. 
Why is there no mention in the Roanoke Times of the Open Burning Ground (at the Radford Arsenal and under the EPA RCRA permit) which was the subject of a public DEQ  meeting on June 28th? The permit modification proposes to allow greater quantities of toxins to be burned in the 16 pans located along the banks of the New River, within the "float" described here:
 see Peppers Ferry to Whitethorne Float

Yet, our local newspaper made no mention of this meeting. Instead their article focused solely on the EPA's RCRA permit as if it were separate from the DEQ permits issued under that RCRA. Our "news"paper failed to inform readers that the Open Burning Grounds are in fact Subpart X of that EPA permit.
 Roanoke Times fails to mention DEQ meeting the NEXT NIGHT
Why the lack of transparency? Who provided the information in the sub-headline that the most of the toxins are "gone or not harmful?" Ask the Roanoke Times to cite a source for that assertion. No one at EPA Region 3 will claim to have made the statement, yet the EPA chooses to ignore the published lie. Why?
Roanoke Times disinformation
 
Why are the people who live in the New River Valley not being informed by their government or the press about the toxins in our drinking water? A quick look at this site indicates we have a few chemicals coming out of our taps to be concerned about...
EWG Tapwater testing results 
Why has no one in the local news media mentioned the high levels of chloroform and at least one lead level of 21.9  ppb found in Christiansburg? It's been claimed that those lead levels are due to old plumbing being affected by chlorine disinfection, but the system switched to TTHM's to "fix" that problem a decade ago. Neither does it explain the lead in tap water tests at homes with all PVC piping. These are people on municipal water - who knows what's in private wells?


Truth is, if you are pregnant or have small children a whole house water filtration system is your best bet to escape the contamination in water. That is until or unless the government agencies and employees charged with protecting our health decide to speak the truth.