cover image The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military

The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military

Seth Shulman. Beacon Press (MA), $23 (254pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-0416-6

In southeast Indiana, the 100 square miles of farmland known as the Jefferson Proving Ground (scheduled to close) contains more than one million unexploded bombs, mines and artillery shells, some buried 30 feet deep. In Hanford, Wash., the cleanup of radioactive wastes that have seeped into the ground is estimated to take 30 years and cost $57 billion. Using the Freedom of Information Act, freelance journalist Shulman documents what may be the country's most serious environmental threat: toxic contamination at virtually every one of the 1855 military installations. Shulman charges that the defense department has for years included toxic material in mixed lots of surplus goods sold to the public and that managers have withheld information about pollution. He notes that the Pentagon insists on running the cleanup program, resisting outside regulation and hiring the same contractors that helped create the problems. Costs of cleanup are staggering, and in such cases as chemical weapons, the technology in doubt. Shulman describes citizen efforts for action and offers information on agencies to contact. (May)