* * Talking about the Arsenal's pollution

One of the worst kept secrets around here is that the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP), colloquially referred to as “The Arsenal,” is one of the state’s worst polluters. Air. Land. The New River. Underground aquifers. You name it, they pollute it. Devawn Oberlender believes what they’re doing is immoral at best, illegal at worst.

When I spoke with the Blacksburg resident, she compared the Arsenal with the Superfund in Arizona where she grew up. Speaking of the toxins released there she declared, “It’s bad at the RAAP, egregious. Historically, problems have not been talked about; they’ve been swept under the dirt. The ongoing contamination is, I believe, in violation of their RCRA (Resource Conservation Recovery Act). It is a permit assigned by the EPA as part of CERCLA, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

“Back in 2000 there was discussion based upon the site evaluation to get a handle on what they knew was going on in contamination. The US Army Corps of Engineers had been working on cleaning up some of the contamination for a decade, water and ground. The EPA found 78 toxic sites on the RAAP grounds alone!”

Oberlender informed me the arsenal had been in operation since 1941. The Army needed a place to manufacture the propellants necessary for the bullets, rockets, and bombs for the war. They chose the site because of ample water, sparse population, and intensely patriotic neighbors willing to sacrifice for the cause of freedom. Army planners may also have appreciated the karst geography and its characteristic sink holes that could make waste vanish conveniently.

The Arsenal is a GOCO facility, which means “government owned corporate operated.” The Army owns the land and buildings, but corporations run it for profit. In 1941, it was Hercules. In 1995, Alliant Tech Systems took over and since July 2012, it has been BAE Systems. All of the businesses operating the Arsenal appear to be disinclined to police themselves as environmental stewards.

 “They had dumps where they buried toxic stuff. Many of them are still there,” she claimed. “Worse today is their Open Burning Ground (OBG). It was put into operation in 1941 (to burn waste materials) and has been used ever since. BAE told us at a meeting last May that there were 233 burns in 2013, averaging 1078 pounds of waste each. They use large, elevated, clay-lined pans, pile the waste on top, douse it with diesel fuel and light it on fire. The OBG area is 100 feet from the river and you can see it when you float by. Each burn releases a smoky, toxic plume. According to the Health Assessment for the OBG submitted in 2005, when the fire begins to burn down and it smolders, dioxins and other toxins float away in the air as particulate matter. The OBG operating permit, which expires next April, does not require air quality monitoring. The DEQ has not budgeted monitors for Montgomery County, despite being home to the largest emitter of toxins in the state according to EPA data.”

She continued, “They took a plant built in a hurry in 1941 and are still operating it.”

I asked why the contractors weren’t testing air emissions or being more proactive to safeguard the surrounding community. She answered with one word: “money.”

“They are polluting us with lead, mercury, chromium, dinitrotoluene, and dioxin. (BAE) got a permit to release perchlorate at a much higher level than the Army’s own standard. This pollution is literally killing people, absolutely. None of the responsible agencies are fixing it.”

To Oberlender, this is a full-fledged national scandal, with a concerted effort to stifle dissemination of information. My guess, as she spoke about this, was that regulators were likely doing what they could under the current, overly lax regulatory framework, but this was likely to get worse and not better given the open hostility our current congressman has towards the EPA.

“As I mentioned, I grew up in a Superfund site where we had small amounts of TCE in our drinking water for years. Many of the kids I grew up with are dead and lots more are sick. Everyone in charge at the Arsenal knows that what they are burning over there is killing people.” Her jaw began to quiver and her eyes moistened. “I am a licensed history teacher. I believe in America and democracy and the rule of law. I thought when this issue first became public that if enough people knew about it, it would stop. Now I know that we are collateral damage. The profit that is made outweighs prudent safe operation of the plant. It is disgusting.

“Denial is dangerous. The communities around Auschwitz (German Concentration Camp) allowed themselves to believe that what they smelled was bread baking. Go near the Arsenal and get a good whiff; that isn't bread they're baking.”