build a dirt berm, shoot into it for six months, put the berm through a DIRT SIFTER, remove all the bullets, put the berm back where it was... it's NOT rocket science.
Posted on 07/29/2005 4:52:50 PM PDT by Brian328i
BOURNE, Mass. (AP) - Army officials at a Massachusetts army base said they thought they were being eco-friendly when they started using "green bullets" that contain no lead - a move meant to prevent polluting an aquifer beneath Camp Edwards.
But six years later, after a million rounds have been fired at the base's shooting ranges, new information suggests the green bullets may not be much better for the environment than the lead ones.
"It's frustrating," Col. William FitzPatrick of the National Guard's Environmental Readiness Center said Thursday. "You're doing what you think are the right things. As science evolves, you wonder, 'Am I in front of the curve, or behind?' "
The green bullets are made of nylon and tungsten, a metal that supposedly does not seep into ground as quickly as lead. That's important because the aquifer below the base supplies upper Cape Cod with drinking water.
But conventional wisdom about tungsten has been challenged by tests done in recent years at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.
Lab tests there found in 2002 that tungsten was not insoluble and it could travel through soil under certain conditions. It also found tungsten enables lead to move through the soil more quickly.
The army has now begun field tests on how tungsten moves through the ground.
Camp Edwards is part of the Massachusetts Military Reservation, which covers nearly 80 square kilometres. It's been a major training centre for decades.
The camp has had a history of environmental problems since it opened in 1911.
Jet fuel, solvents and other pollutants contaminated the aquifer and the groundwater is now under constant monitoring.
In 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered target practice halted at the camp and ordered a clean-up of lead buried in and around the berms at the base shooting ranges.
Lead was later found six metres underground and moving toward the aquifer - though it never reached the water.
For now, the tungsten bullets are still officially considered safe by the Department of Defence, and they are still used at the base.
This poor guy can't win for losing!
The liberal bullets are made of cork and conveniently have a string for quick reloading.
Or a rod with a white flag that falls out.
These rounds are made out of nylon and tungsten. when the nylon gets into the environment what does it do to humans and other living things.
Who knows; at the rate things are going we will learn that nylon is a dangerous carcinogen in large amounts. (Sarcasm on)
I thought that liberal rounds consisted of a moistened paper spheroid and were insterted into an air pressure operatedweapon consisting of a plastic tube.
Virginia Tech Professors Study Effects On Environment Of Lead From Bullets
BLACKSBURG, March 24 — Two studies done at Virginia Tech showed very little lead damage to the environment from bullets left on battlefields or on a carefully designed shotgun/rifle range.
In the first study, David H. Edwards of Virginia Tech’s Department of Geological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences and several other scientists studied the Blacksburg Shooting Range located three miles north of town in the Jefferson National Forest. The range was built and is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service and is composed of a rifle range and a separate shotgun range. While high lead concentrations have been found on the range itself, relatively small amounts of lead have been found in the water on the range and no water contamination has been found off the range, Edwards said. "The lead is quickly weathered into stable lead minerals, and that minimizes the uptake of lead by groundwater," he said.
However, the scientists found that damage by shot impacts to the trees at the end of the range is extensive and many trees are dying as much as 140 meters beyond the range, particularly in the first 90 meters.
"The range was constructed to minimize the effects of lead concentrations and serves a useful purpose for people who enjoy recreational shooting," Edwards said. Firearm vandalism to public property has been significantly reduced and the two tons of lead that would have scattered throughout the region has been concentrated and neutralized on the range. This is a useful service provided by the U.S. Forest Service and a carefully managed recreational opportunity for Virginia residents."
The scientists involved in the study in addition to Edwards were James R. Craig, geological sciences; J. Donald Rimstidt, geological sciences; Patrick F. Scanlon of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Thomas K. Collins of the Washington-Jefferson National Forest.
In the second study, James R. Craig of Virginia Tech’s geological sciences department and several other scientists looked at the possibility of lead contamination from the bullets left behind on battlefields. "The countless battles throughout history have spread thousands of tons of lead bullets on every continent," the researchers said. "Today the concern of battlefield contamination has even led the military to turn to ‘green’ bullets. The question remains, ‘What happens to all of that lead on those battlefields?’"
The simplest answer for most sites, the researchers found, is that the lead is still there, and much is in the form in which it was fired originally." They studied a variety of battlefields of differing ages, from early 18th century to the present, and in locations as varied as marine sand, deserts, coastal plain swamps, and uplands. They found that most of the lead is quite well preserved because it forms a protective coating of relatively insoluble oxide, carbonate, sulfate, or sulfide minerals.
"Lead metal dissolves readily, but once it oxidizes in a soil, the insoluble coatings…retard decomposition," the scientists said.
The scientists in the study in addition to Craig are Rimstidt, Robert C. Whisonant of the Radford University geology department, and Scanlon.
Okay, now where did we get the lead to make the bullet>? FROM THE GROUND!
What is the problem, people?
Well, I know that I have found nylons to be very dangerous at certain times in my life.
< ]B^)
Why does the National Guard need an environmental readiness center, whatever that is?? Is this where the liberals who join the National Guard go for jobs?
Blue state. Close the range, no weapons training of any kind. They can do public works projects.
build a dirt berm, shoot into it for six months, put the berm through a DIRT SIFTER, remove all the bullets, put the berm back where it was... it's NOT rocket science.
But the dirt might have an itty bitty tiny piece of lead in it and then all of us will die of lead poisoning.
>>>"Why does the National Guard need an environmental readiness center, whatever that is?? Is this where the liberals who join the National Guard go for jobs?"<<<
This is another Clinton "I Loathe the Military" gift.
If you look at the payscales for State Civil Servants (Which is what National Guard full timers are) you will find that they are also the HIGHEST PAID, not because of any expertise but because they are usually stealth appointed Relatives of Civilians that work for the Military Department State of (FILL IN THE BLANK) where the recent High School Graduate whose mom sits on the Generals lap can START at $50,000.00 per year, while highly Educated, Long Term, maybe even Decorated Soldiers will bring home $800.00 every two weeks.
Been there seen that...
Civil Service SUCKS
"U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?!"
Quite a few rifle ranges have made money by doing just that and having a lead recovery company come out, sift through the berms, and take back a lot of lead for recycling.
I neglected to mention that not only are these Enviro Weinies the highest paid Civil Servants at a Post but you cannot question their Authority. An entire Department was created JUST FOR THEM, hired Secretararies, built offices, requisitioned transportation, Government Housing (No Waiting either)
Fast Tracked ignorant Inbred Slobs (But on the bright side, The General sure does like their mamas A$$)
(I'm not bitter, I'm not Bitter, I'm not Bitter.......)
No, that would be bullet science.
yup...
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