Redstone Arsenal has roughly 388,000 munitions or partial munitions buried in trenches (wife, hear)

[CoreLysium]

Originally Posted by writerwife

You mean that frankenfood, pseudo corn?

I don't really worry about the GM stuff. But I'd wager that all the fertility issues the US is having probably have a lot to do with the atrazine.

[writerwife]

Originally Posted by CoreLysium

I don't really worry about the GM stuff. But I'd wager that all the fertility issues the US is having probably have a lot to do with the atrazine.

Prob not just atrazine... all the pesticides, herbicides, etc.. cumulative.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by writerwife

Like bmrisko said... fairly common knowledge that stuff was there, just not the details but, there's a big part of me that says let sleeping dogs lie... I don't like the idea of them digging the stuff up and messing around with it and then saying.... "oops".....

This is all fine until the chemicals leak into the drinking water supply system. Then it leaks into the Tennessee river. It is no longer a Restone isolated problem. In case you are wondering, no; chlorine alone or water filter will not get rid of them.

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

This is all fine until the chemicals leak into the drinking water supply system. Then it leaks into the Tennessee river. It is no longer a Restone isolated problem. In case you are wondering, no; chlorine alone or water filter will not get rid of them.

Yes I've lived here for several years and know much about the history of the arsenal, but I just didn't realize the extent of the amount of buried chemical and non chemical munitions there. It's not something to panic over but certainly it's something worth paying attention to, no one knows for sure what the long term effect or problem will be if they are just left to sit there forever for decade after decade. I wouldn't just look at it like oh well they have been there forever so nothing bad can ever happen, that's how major catastrophes occur when we don't take potential future threats and problems seriously, that would be a foolish thing to do. We don't know if letting them be buried there for 50 more years if there is a chance something serious could go wrong and the chemicals start leaking into water and other crucial areas, better safe than sorry.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

This is all fine until the chemicals leak into the drinking water supply system. Then it leaks into the Tennessee river.

News flash: The Tennessee River IS our drinking water supply system.

[writerwife]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

This is all fine until the chemicals leak into the drinking water supply system. Then it leaks into the Tennessee river. It is no longer a Restone isolated problem. In case you are wondering, no; chlorine alone or water filter will not get rid of them.

Oh, I know. It's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. Have to do something, I agree. I just don't know if I trust their handling of it either. Sticky Wicket.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by writerwife

Oh, I know. It's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. Have to do something, I agree. I just don't know if I trust their handling of it either. Sticky Wicket.

This happens a lot all over the country. Take the West side San Fernando Valley in LA, California for example. On top of Santa Susana mountain there is a D.O.E. site that they used to test nuclear stuff & they burried the 55 gal drums of radiative waste all over the mountain. Back then there was no EPA regulations and only the bikers, hippies & oulaws hang out there. Well, 50 years later that place is populated with multi-million dollar homes & there are over one million people live in the SF Valley. One day the local paper published that they detected traces of radioactive waste in the ground water. All hell broke loose. Now it is a part of EPA Superfund sites.

That's why if you are from LA, you don't drink the tap water!

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by Southlander

News flash: The Tennessee River IS our drinking water supply system.

Reckon it is for Decatur

[CoreLysium]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Reckon it is for Decatur

Yes, very much so. And Huntsville is glad to be upriver from your chemical plants.

And while most of HSV is served by the TN river for water, if you get further north, like where I live, it's well water. My tap water stays the same, year round, even when the river 'turns over.'

Also, the reason I mention atrazine specifically is because at 30 ppb it can spontaneously change a frog from a male to a female. A farmer I've talked to said "You're daughter is fine, but I'd worry about any sons." Because a common birth defect is, uh, well, not totally male. It's basically a really super potent endocrine disruptor...that you can buy off Amazon.com.

[writerwife]

Originally Posted by CoreLysium

"You're daughter is fine,

I wouldn't bet on that either.