Clean air law stands

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Clean air law stands

By X. Mullen Jr.

Reno Gazette-Journal

Monday September 3rd, 2001

SUSANVILLE, Calif. - Lassen County officials have denied Sierra Army Depot's

request for an exemption to clean air laws, effectively ending the base's

40-year-old practice of burning and exploding bombs, bullets, mines and

rocket engines in the open air upwind of Washoe County.

Army officials can appeal the decision of the Lassen County Air Pollution

Control Board, but base spokespersons could not be reached for comment

Sunday. The depot has no air pollution permit and is prohibited from

continuing open-air demolition activities.

The base destroyed up to 50 million pounds of unwanted munitions per year

and sent clouds containing toxins west to Nevada and northwest toward

ville.

" This shows that in a democracy the voice of the people still counts, " said

Jack Pastor, leader of Residents Against Munitions, a group of more than

1,200 residents who want the Army to adopt " closed chamber " methods of

munitions destruction.

" It's been a two-years-long battle fighting against this caveman method of

disposing of munitions. But in the end, the people won and the toxic cloud

won't be going over our homes again, " Pastor said Sunday.

In previous interviews with the Reno Gazette-Journal, base spokesman Larry

said the base doesn't threaten people's health.

" We are in compliance with environmental laws and all the guidelines, "

said in May. " We are operating within the environmental controls

placed on us. We are within the acceptable (health) risk posed by the

regulators. "

The depot is located 55 miles northwest of Reno and about 14 miles due west

of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. Smoke plumes from the daily blasts

traveled over the mountains and swirled in the bowl of the lake and drifted

over Reno's north valleys.

Over the last 10 years, about 28,000 tons per year of munitions have been

detonated or burned in the open air at the depot. In 1995 alone, 53 million

pounds of military explosives and 200 rocket motors were detonated or burned

at the depot.

The ordnance contains toxic and carcinogenic chemicals including lead,

mercury, arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium, nickel and dioxins. The Army

currently burns when the wind is blowing in an easterly direction, toward

the Pyramid Lake reservation and Reno's north valleys.

A Reno Gazette-Journal investigation into the base's activities last year

unearthed records that showed the base sometimes violated its own guidelines

for the munitions blasts, such as blowing up ordnance when the cloud cover

was low or the wind was stronger than the guidelines allowed.

Local activists also found hundreds of cases of cancer in Lassen County that

didn't show up on the California Cancer Registry because the patients were

treated at Nevada hospitals. The activists called for a disease study and

environmental tests to determine if the munitions burning polluted the air,

soil and water along the California-Nevada border.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Washoe County health officials, the Pyramid Lake

Paiute Tribe, the Nevada Division of Health, the ville Rancheria of

Indians, Lassen County doctors and Nevada environmental groups joined the

fight against the open burning. In November, the federal Environmental

Protection Agency took the rare step of reopening the depot's air pollution

permit because the open burning was a violation of the Clean Air Act.

The depot asked Lassen County for an exemption to the air pollution permit

regulations on the grounds that there were no safe alternative methods for

disposing of munitions. Last week, the county refused to grant an exemption

to the depot.

" The Army has not demonstrated any basis for an exemption, " R.

, Lassen County air pollution control officer, wrote in the board's

decision. " Notice is given that any continued open burning or open

detonation activities at Sierra Army Depot will constitute a violation. "

said in previous interviews that the depot planned to demolish about

24 million pounds of munitions this year, about half the historic quantity.

He said the decrease in demolition is partly due to public concern over

noise levels from the blasts and was also due to a downturn in business

caused by the pollution controversy.

This year, the EPA ranked the depot as California's leading air polluter in

1999, the first time the depot was included on the pollution list. The base

discharged 5.4 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in 1999, about

17 percent of the total released into the air statewide, the EPA said.