U.S. bases created 28,538 toxic waste sites needing $50 billion in cleanup

Evidence

Before the introduction of national environmental legislation, the environmental damage caused by military bases was even worse than it is today. At home and abroad, bases regularly dumped toxic substances into rivers and streams, including asbestos, leaded paint, and other hazardous materials. Bases habitually oiled down dirt roads to contain dust. Some dumped hazardous waste at sea, including materials associated with nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. An Army spokesperson admitted that in waters off eleven states around the country, the Army “secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas agent in the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, landmines, and rockets, and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.” By 2000, the military estimated that its bases in the United States alone contained 28,538 toxic waste sites, with nearly twenty-seven million acres of contaminated property. The estimated cleanup costs are nearly $50 billion. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 390

Categorization

• SEED: The Army’s admission of secretly dumping 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas at sea is a shock-and-awe data point for a piece on the military’s hidden environmental legacy.
• BMF: The image of the Army packing radioactive waste into scuttled vessels and sinking them offshore echoes the way We’s Benefactor-era One State buries its problems out of sight — hidden disposal as bureaucratic erasure.