Demilitarization/Open Burning of Production Waste Information
DEMILITARIZATION FACTS
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Demilitarization and disposal are the final steps in the life-cycle management of materiel.
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According to DoDM 4160.28-M-V1, June 7, 2011, demilitarization of ammunition is defined as “the act of eliminating the
functional capabilities and/or inherent military design features from DoD personal property…DEMIL is required to prevent
property from being used for its originally intended purpose and to prevent the release of inherent design information that
could be used against the United States…”
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The Department of Defense sustains combat readiness through safe and efficient disposal of obsolete, defective, and excess
munitions at a rate sufficient to keep pace with new generations of munitions and control overall stockpile growth.
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The Army is committed to protecting human health and the environment, and open burning is the safest means — currently
permitted under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations — for regular and routine destruction of excess
munitions and explosives.
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Some information distributed by activists and/or shared by social media is factually incorrect.
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A variety of site-specific analytical inspection techniques are in place at each of the 11 locations that open burn. They include subsurface
water well monitoring, surface water runoff management, continuous air quality monitoring, atmospheric and meteorological analysis and
emissions dispersion modeling techniques that have been developed, authorized and applied in accordance with Environmental Protection
Agency regulatory standards.
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Open burning is a controlled process that has been empirically evaluated and quantified for over 30 years through a variety of field studies
and tests conducted in cooperation with EPA, national laboratories, academia, technical consortiums and research centers from across the nation.
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The disassembly, preprocessing and extra handling required to prepare a munition for closed disposal technologies exposes personnel to more
explosive safety hazards than those normally associated with open burning. Due to the extreme forces and pressures generated when initiated
in a closed environment, many munition items simply can’t be reasonably processed through most conventional closed disposal technologies.
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Demilitarization stocks take up space and continually degrade over time. Propellant is especially volatile when added stabilizers degrade.
By using open burning, multiple items can be processed at a time and a series of items may be processed over the course of the day, weeks,
and years. Traditional closed incineration methods lack this flexibility and cannot effectively support this type of workload.
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Independent of federal regulation, the Army has maintained its commitment to handle and store military munitions responsibly in order to
minimize the potential for harm to human health and the environment.
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Current technologies can only meet a very small percentage of the needs for demilitarization. If we wait until technologies are available,
constant generations of obsolete munitions will be added to Government storage areas.
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Items that require demilitarization can range from a rifle cartridge to a 5,000 pound bunker buster bomb. Each of these items create unique
safety concerns for those in charge of demilitarization. Due to the limited availability of closed-disposal alternative technologies, many
items still require the use of open burn and open detonation for disposal.
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DoD also continues to collaborate directly with researchers from EPA’s own Research Triangle Park using new cutting-edge drone technology
and EPA research techniques to sample air emissions from actual live fire Open Burn and Open Detonation events. This empirical information
is used to further refine current understandings of actual releases to the environment from Open Burn and Open Detonation operations.
This DoD/EPA collaboration has been ongoing for over a decade and represents a cooperative scientific based approach for ensuring continued
protection of human health and the environment.
OPEN BURNING OF PRODUCTION WASTE FACTS
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The Army is committed to protecting human health and the environment, and open burning of production waste is the safest
means — currently permitted under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations — for regular and routine
destruction of excess munitions and explosives.
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Open burning of production waste, and the handling of excess munitions and explosives, is a regulated process.
Extensive controls and safety measures, including stringent permitting requirements are in place to ensure the health
and safety of the surrounding communities and to protect the environment.
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Significant information distributed by activists is incorrect and the media, and others, don’t check the facts to ensure its accuracy.
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A variety of site-specific analytical inspection techniques are in place at each of the 11 locations that open burn. They include
subsurface water well monitoring, surface water runoff management, continuous air quality monitoring, atmospheric and meteorological
analysis and emissions dispersion modeling techniques that have been developed, authorized and applied in accordance with Environmental
Protection Agency regulatory standards.
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Open burning is a controlled process that has been empirically evaluated and quantified for over 30 years through a variety of field studies
and tests conducted in cooperation with EPA, national laboratories, academia, technical consortiums and research centers from across the nation.
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In compliance with federal regulation, a detailed analysis of physical and chemical constituents is performed on waste munitions prior to any
demilitarization. This analysis is utilized to identify any chemicals of concern that may require special treatment processes.
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In collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Dayton’s Research Institute did an unmanned aerial vehicle (a hexacopter)
study at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in 2017. Plume sampling of open burns of MK-90 rocket motors and skid waste was successfully
accomplished. Emission factors were compared with other recently sampled aerial emission data and found to be consistent or in some cases
found to be considerably lower. None of the energetics and nitroaromatic compounds for the MK-90 rocket motors exceeded the analytical method
detection limit. Of the 26 compounds in common between detectable volatile organic compounds emissions from Radford’s skid waste and the listed
human health risk assessment emission factors, 25 of the VOCs were less than the HHRA emission factor.
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DoD also continues to collaborate directly with researchers from EPA’s own Research Triangle Park using new cutting-edge drone technology and EPA
research techniques to sample air emissions from actual live fire Open Burn and Open Detonation events. This empirical information is used to
further refine current understandings of actual releases to the environment from Open Burn and Open Detonation operations. This DoD/EPA
collaboration has been ongoing for over a decade and represents a cooperative scientific based approach for ensuring continued protection
of human health and the environment.
Closed-Disposal Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization
Demilitarization by Open Burn/Open Detonation
(OBOD)