6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium from Kuwait coming to US

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004387018_apidtoxicsand1stldwritethru.html

Contaminated sand slated for Idaho dump site

Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho.

American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks.

Transfer of the sand to the United States was first reported this week by The Daily News in Longview.

The company has previously disposed of low-level radioactive waste and hazardous materials from U.S. military bases overseas at facilities in Idaho, Nevada and Texas, said American Ecology spokesman Chad Hyslop, who is based in Boise.

"As you can imagine, the host countries of those bases don't want the waste in their country," Hyslop said.

[lame54]

1. Is this the Bush rebate?

[Sabriel]

2. We're storing it here so we don't have to store it over there.

Seriously, do we have to import that stuff? Can't good ol' US companies produce enough contaminated sand to keep us supplied comfortably?

[enough]

3. What will they do with all the Iraqi sand that's contaminated with depleted Uranium?

[NNN0LHI]

5. And Afghanistan

[countryjake]

12. What will they do with all the Coalition soldiers from Iraq & Afghanistan...

who are contaminated with depleted Uranium?

The VA hain't seen nothin' yet! That poison that they're hauling thru wa state to Idaho now is from our last conflagration, way back in 1991.

The troubles that these current invasions have brought to both those nations and our military, with regard to radiation poisoning and hazardous waste, are still not any sort of priority to the media, but just give it time.

Like 4.5 billion years worth of time!

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Well, we broke it, so we own it.

[lonestarnot]

6. Well we did put it there didn't we?

[magellan]

7. Why Idaho?

The US gov't says depleted uranium is okay, no health threat, so I can't think why our dear officials shouldn't take possession of it and use it to fill their own children's sandboxes.

[truedelphi]

9. You're right. What abt a small ranch in Crawford Texas??

Or Scalia's property in the Deep SOuth??

[magellan]

11. There's probably more than enough to sprinkle over everyone

...who thinks depleted uranium is no health hazard.

[truedelphi]

20. The thing is, the Depleted uranium can easily be shielded

Put it in tanks of a cerain thickness, and as long as it isn't blown up by explosive forces, it's okay.

You don't want it in the drinking water, you don't water it aerosolized, but it really is not the worst thing in terms of it being stored.

The problem that I have with Depleted Uranium is this:
1) we are using it in so many places - Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and we know that any substance put into the atmosphere will be distributed evenly across the globe within five days. So penguins are already dealing with the aerosolized DU from some GIs' jeep exploding ten days ago in Iraq.

2) the fact that this DU stuff is an extreme menace to people in the areas of conflict - once aerolosolized, it becomes a different critter physically speaking. So the kids in Bosnia that grew up where DU vehicles had blown up, and now the kids in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are all suffering from some much more extreme form of uranium exposure than someone who has a tank of it located a mile from their house.

3) if this were Europe, where there is still a great deal of honesty in terms of storage of the nuclear materials storage industry, I'd let them store DU in my back yard (for a price) But the history of the nuclear storage industry in this country is rife with fraud.

Within a week of moving to California in 1981, I was at a fancy pants restaurant, and two guys in a booth near me were reminiscing over how 20 yrs earlier, they had dumped barrels of Nuclear Waste into the waters along Califonria's coast. And that since the storage barrels were simply barrels, they were already rusted away and releasing their various plutonium products into the very areas where Calfiornias get their fish to eat!

[magellan]

21. I hope they were eating seafood!!

How agonizingly dreadful. That's what huge profit and the "fuck them, I've got mine" mindset does to people.

I concur with all you say about depleted uranium. The facts aren't going away. What we've done is a crime (need I say one of countless crimes) and will be recognized as such one day -- if we ever get to a point where world leaders are forced to be more concerned with their own survival than with lining their pockets with money.

[truedelphi]

23. Gosh - I wish I'd thought of sending an order of shrimp cocktails over to them!

LOL n/t

[leftofthedial]

8. as part of the repuke "no child left behind and unglowing in the dark"

the sand will be used in elementary school playgrounds.

Parents will be billed $27,500 per child.

[Fireweed247]

10. And Americans thought we were safe from genocide over here

What a bunch of sick bastards for using it in the first place,

[Robbien]

13. We exempt the military from cleaning up pollution here in the US

However foreign countries are not putting up with that nonsense. Go home and take your garbage with you, say they.

[progressoid]

14. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Imagine how much is in Iraq.

[Chulanowa]

15. But aren't we constantly told by our government that DU isn't harmful in the least?

That it doesn't harm our soldiers who breathe the stuff every day?
That it causes no harm to the Afghans and Iraqis who ingest and breathe the dust every day?
That it will have no negative impact on the watersheds of the Tigris and Euphrates?


Hammer it, people.

[countryjake]

19. Don't forget the Snake River and the Columbia...

for all those who feel that our country is all that matters.

(Had an argument right after this story broke, with a person who thought that they should just dump all that poison crap in Iraq, when nobody's looking. Told them, just wait til both Iraq and Afghanistan dirt is being labeled "hazardous" and killing millions over there, for years to come. Get our backyards ready...DU genocide coming soon, to a dump sight near you!)

[Career Prole]

16. Well, thank goodness!

Now they can put that shit a half-ounce at a time in 428,800,000 itty-bitty vials complete with flags on 'em and "Certificates of Authenticity" and sell 'em to repukes for say, 2500 bucks per the half-ounce.

That'll bring in a trillion bucks to pay for offset the cost of their friggin' war!

We just need to get Charlie Gibson over at ABC to tell 'em their outfit ain't complete until they have the flag lapel pin and a wee bottle o' Freedom Sand^©.

[Contrary1]

17. Why not dump it in Crawford?

There is already a huge waste site there.

[spanone]

18. isn't that special....get these fuckers out of our white house asap

[1776Forever]

22. Thanks for posting this! It is very important to keep this in the "sunshine" - What's next?

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