Cleanup Of Former Navy Bombing Range A Risky Job

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
February 11, 2007
A big task, too, as tall vegetation is covering much of 14,500 acres
By Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press
VIEQUES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, PUERTO RICO — One misstep on this former U.S. Navy bombing range can be fatal.
For decades, warships and planes hammered the Naval Training Range on Vieques with live rounds before it was closed in April 2003 after years of protests against the danger and the din — leaving thousands of unexploded bombs, rockets, cluster bombs and other munitions lurking under dense foliage.
About 110 contract workers are now cleaning up the site on Vieques, a speck of land with 9,000 residents eight miles east of Puerto Rico's main island.
The Navy began war maneuvers on Vieques in 1948 after expropriating land for as little as $53 an acre, subjecting those who live on the rest of the island to window-rattling blasts.
"It really gets your attention when you walk out there," said Carlton Finley, a Navy ordnance disposal expert. "You've got to keep your focus, watch where you're putting your foot, and step lightly."
The protest against the bombing range by islanders and some American celebrities began in 1999 when a Marine jet dropped two bombs off target and killed a Puerto Rican security guard.
Cleaning the area has proved more difficult than expected, with much of the 14,500-acre site covered with tangled vegetation reaching 15 feet high. The Navy says up to 9,000 acres may contain munitions.
Officials had expected to clear 400 acres in seven months, but it has taken almost a year-and-a-half to finish just 235 acres, said Daniel Rodriguez of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Removing all the munitions could take as long as a decade, officials say. The current phase envisions clearing 1,100 acres.
 
Back
Top