General aviation is being disrupted by expanded practice-bombing in parts of Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota now the US Environmental Protection Agency is saying Ellsworth Air Force Base is likely polluting both Box Elder Creek and the Elk Creek drainages. Both are tributaries of the Cheyenne River.
As if it isn't bad enough that Senator John Thune is a tool of the military/industrial complex where Ellsworth Air Force Base aids and abets pilots who kill children and practice-bombs parts of four states he wants to bring a doomed fighter to Sioux Falls.
Nearly a century of residue from Black Hills Mining District affected millions of cubic yards of riparian habitat all the way to the Gulf of Mexico until the Oahe Dam was completed in 1962. The soils of the Belle Fourche and Cheyenne Rivers are inculcated with arsenic at levels that have killed cattle. Catfish and most other organisms cope with lethal levels of mercury.
In related news, the Little Missouri watershed at risk to an Australian uranium mine in Wyoming's Thunder Basin National Grassland.
Rapid City sez: fuck you, Mr. President; but, thanks for the dough.
At issue is the foam used in training military firefighters to fight fuel-based fires. The EPA believes two forms of perfluorinated compounds (PFOS and PFOA) that are part of the foam may pollute the water. [KOTA teevee]Ellsworth is already a Superfund site.
The most recent review concluded that groundwater remedies are in place and operating, and that they protect human health and the environment because contaminated groundwater is contained at the base boundary, high concentration source areas have been identified and are being treated, and land use controls and alternate water supplies prevent groundwater use. [EPA]FE Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyoming is another installation with pollution concerns. Airmen from that base dropped a nuclear-tipped missile in NE Colorado after fun with cocaine.
As if it isn't bad enough that Senator John Thune is a tool of the military/industrial complex where Ellsworth Air Force Base aids and abets pilots who kill children and practice-bombs parts of four states he wants to bring a doomed fighter to Sioux Falls.
Nearly a century of residue from Black Hills Mining District affected millions of cubic yards of riparian habitat all the way to the Gulf of Mexico until the Oahe Dam was completed in 1962. The soils of the Belle Fourche and Cheyenne Rivers are inculcated with arsenic at levels that have killed cattle. Catfish and most other organisms cope with lethal levels of mercury.
In related news, the Little Missouri watershed at risk to an Australian uranium mine in Wyoming's Thunder Basin National Grassland.
Rapid City sez: fuck you, Mr. President; but, thanks for the dough.
As I've mentioned before, the remaining antique Lancers are being sent one at a time to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma to receive geoengineering retrofit; the cover story of getting new dashboard gauges (IBS) is pretty spendy, no?
ReplyDeleteIf you watch KOTA's recent story on the ill-fated Willow Creek Wind Project, (which neglects to tell it's viewers that Wind Quarry llc. is being sued by it's own chief financial officer for 16.5 million dollars) -you can see massive amounts of chaff dropped by Ellsworth and Co. hanging from powerlines in that video report-
So I was excited to see the poisoning headline, but its the groundwater issue. If you look again at the historical Ellworth photos on Google Earth, you can see by the pond north of the runway, with it's variable psychedelic colors year to year, that all is not well with contamination.
Ellsworth is being threatened with closure again.
DeleteWarren, Minot and Malmstrom can manage the Northern Command: it's time for endangered sage grouse to get a reprieve from extirpation: close the Powder River Training Complex and convert Ellsworth to a fire-fighting tanker base.
The dozens of former ICBM sites and launch centers across West River are also similarly contaminated; there is also the forgotten spent nuclear fuel dump on top of Warren Peak north of Sundance Wyoming. Back in the day when I was an AF spouse, it was common knowledge on Ellsworth that hard to get rid of boo-boo spills and fuck-ups could still be taken to Igloo Army Depot (Superfund) and just dump and run.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Piss is Their Profession.
DeleteEllsworth will never be closed because it is one of the finest runways in the world (I'm all for UPS or Fed Ex to get to enjoy that, or prairie dogs)
ReplyDeleteEllworth's growing critical role as Weather CuisineArt
(nucleate scattered across my patio as I write)
I have first hand technical knowledge of the range expansion, so as to accommodate drone training as well.
The increased usage is to cover the CuisineArt, they tell you in their own briefings if you read between the lines.
SE Montana, NE Wyoming, NW South Dakota and SW North Dakota are inhabited by people with access to weapons like anti-aircraft armaments. It's just a matter of time before another B-1B augurs in up there.
Delete...or augers in....
DeleteIf that happens it will be airframe failure. The lancer is old and built for speed and distance; the geoengineering reqires fling a damn tight "cookie" for one of these old girls. it's an elegant plane, but it's old. the two options of why they are involved both suck:
ReplyDelete1. The atmosphere is so fucked that were riggin' sprayers on our 80's gear
and/or
2. The Military Industrial Complex/Establishment/Thune strikes again, in the typical move of forcing gear on the military that is outdated and/or never worked in the first place. The Lancer is now in it's third overhaul, without debate.
I've witnessed all three Ellworth B-1 crashes; the runway miss, the pilot error north of Belle, and the fire of 2013 in SE MT.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this will be where we get to see some of the new toys if they do have problems; the watershed moment when the knowledge of our global fate tips to the majority, humanity will face it's own fuck-ups head on for the first, and probably last time.
The B-21 and F-35 are losing luster in Congress after W tanked the economy. How this country funds multi-trillion dollar military spending while destroying the middle class remains a mystery.
DeleteThat's all the proof you need that we have technologically surpassed the need for said middle class. Massive thinning of the USA herd as we globalize; they dream of a maintenance force of a few hundred thousand. You get a perverted version of wildlands return.
ReplyDeleteAs we're witnessing in the Cheyenne River watershed: shit flows downhill right into tribal lands.
DeleteYup, football field sized uranium tailing pile a few hundred yards from the river SE of Edgemont, never mind Igloo, never mind Dewey Burdock. Popular recreation lake Angostura is...?
DeleteAll of Lake Oahe is a toxic waste repository.
Delete