USA - "Pollution an enduring legacy at old missile sites"

[demoleft]

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

To date, the corps has spent $116 million at 44 former Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missile — or ICBM — sites and 19 former Nike anti-aircraft missile sites from the early Cold War. The missile sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated site each.

Total cleanup costs are projected to cost $400 million, according to corps spokeswoman Candice Walters.

source, AP. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091010/ap_on_re_us/us_missiles_pollution_legacy

the article is long but it's worth reading. i could not find statements regarding this in the EPA website.

[thunder rising]

1. Alright!! Nike-Hercules still makes the news!! trichloroethylene ... yes sir we did.

The Nikes problems have to be in NY. I wonder why Florida isn't mentioned. I guess hurricane Andrew solved that problem.

[onethatcares]

2. have you been watching the reports about Camp Lejuene?

and the men that have come down with male breast cancer? So far they have been able to trace some problems to the water supply there, after years of stonewalling. The cancers are affecting dependents also.