have done various kinds of work for the u.s. military. for years at that site a company called explo that s foreshadowing a company called explo took in huge quantities of m-6 artillery propellants from the government. this company, they repurposed that propel skpant they resold it mostly to the mining industry, which obviously has a need for explosives from time to time. but at some point in the last few years, the inflow and outflow of this artillery propellant in northwestern louisiana, the inflow and outflow got a little out of whack. for some reason this company started accumulating tons and tons and tons and tons of this m-6 propellant at camp minden. and this propellant is not only toxic in its own right, it is explosive. the longer it sits around, apparently, particularly if it is exposed to the elements, the more likely it is to spontaneously come bust.
those to the forefront. and the epa was aware of them as well. we re not really sure why initially they did not consider all of the safer alternatives. but they certainly are considering them now. and i think the path forward could actually be safe and technology is always going to be able to get better and better. so over the long term it s my hope that these chemicals do not have to be destroyed, they actually could be repurposed. but we have a number of technologies here that we think are going to be adequate. we hope that one of the safer alternatives is chosen. professor of chemistry at louisiana state university in shreveport. i know it s not done but already i think it s struck a remarkable victory in making us come up with better ideas of dealing with this as kahna country. congratulations. thank you. thank you. that giant pile of artillery propellant sitting there in
and there s millions of pounds of it sitting there at this site. and two years after those giant explosions shook minden, louisiana, all the way to texas, it let the world know the toxic stuff was there. in a quantity of millions of pounds two years after the explosions, the epa came in and announced their plan to safely dispose of all that toxic, explosive artillery propellant. the biggest pile of it in the country. they announced what they were going to do with it. their safe plan for disposal was that they would set it on fire. they just burn it. not going to move it anywhere, not going to build any special facilities, or explosive destruction systems for minden. they re not going to build some multibillion dollar sealed system to turn it out to to turn it all into bacteria food. nope, they re just going to set it on fire in northwest louisiana. their announced plan as of this last october was, i kid you not, it is not more complicated than this, they were going to take the stuff
campbell robertson has a great piece today about people who live in the area around minden, how they felt about this plan. in january, local folks, experts they consulted with convinced the epa and the louisiana national guard to please delay this genius plan to just set everything on fire. just a few days ago, this group of concerned local residents and experts submitted a draft plan with six other potential ideas for different ways to handle this stuff, instead of just openly burning it in minden. and now tonight, we can report that the epa has just signed a new agreement, that instead of just going ahead with their plan to openly burn all this stuff, they are now officially going to allow the consideration of alternative technologies for disposing of all of these millions of pounds of toxic artillery propellant. when they talk about technology alternatives, to be clear, what they re talking about are
today. it s happening. that s pueblo, colorado. and then there s basically the opposite of that. which is a place called minden louisiana. camp minden is a state-owned site in northwestern louisiana where for years, contractors have done various kinds of work for the u.s. military. for years at that site a company called explo that s foreshadowing a company called explo took in huge quantities of m-6 artillery propellants from the government. they resold it mostly to the mining industry, which obviously has a need for explosives from time to time. but at some point in the last few years, the inflow and outflow of this artillery propellant in northwestern louisiana, the inflow and outflow got a little out of whack. for some reason this company started accumulating tons and tons and tons and tons of this