Pollution still problematic at old ICBM sites

Pollution still problematic at old ICBM sites
By Mead Gruver - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Oct 11, 2009 16:02:45 EDT

CHEYENNE, Wyoming — As Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural U.S. this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

To date, the corps has spent $116 million at 44 former Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missile sites and 19 former Nike anti-aircraft missile sites from the early Cold War. The ICBM sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated ICBM site each.

Total cleanup costs are projected to cost $400 million, according to corps spokeswoman Candice Walters.

The problem is a chemical called trichloroethylene, or TCE, which was used to keep missiles clean and ready to launch on short notice. Long before environmentalism went mainstream, the men who maintained the missiles didn't think twice about dumping used TCE into the silos' blast pits.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_missile_sites_101109/

http://www.silohome.com/

Of course, one hopes they've been cleaned up...;-)

That's an interesting renovation.

It seems like a damn cool thing to own.