I noticed something about the Rampart Range cleanup controversy but don’t know if I posted it here. A few months ago (before the Range became, as always, a sheet of impenetrable ice) there was a story in the Indy about it. Only, the focus was on Lead. Lead, it was pointed out by the Anti-environmental people, is hard to dissolve in water. Therefore it wasn’t in any way responsible for the sudden spike in toxins in the Manitou spirit-water.
What’s worrisome, though, isn’t the lead, (carcinogenic sure, but not as much as) Mercury.
As in, Mercury Fulminate.
Not pure mercury, but a tarnish or rust of mercury, mercury nitrate.
And, yeah, water soluble.
But the primers in those millions of rounds of ammunition popped off up there every year, the primers are made of mercury fulminate.
Some .22 caliber rounds have no smokeless powder at all, just mercury fulminate.
Remember when the Cowboy Star President, Ray Gunn, got busted in the head and shoulder with a .22? and there was a mini controversy about the ammo… because it had Mercury Fulminate in the slugs as well, making them Explosive.
And, of course, the AFA and Ft Carson have their gun ranges and rifle ranges as well.
Thing about mercury fulminate, it’s the most common detonator both for the shells which toss the projectiles, because it is SO very reliable (trust me, you strike that stuff with anything and it’s going to pop…) the explosive projectiles and the bombs released use it as a primer/detonator as well.
for the same reason.
Just before I came up here, some of y’all were in a dispute with Ft Carson over the ammunition waste metals.
The Army basically told everybody to STFU and it ain’t none of our damn business what kind of poison they’re pouring into our water supply.
Oh, and I DID mention this once… at Camp Casey one evening.
What the Army had said about “Our troops need to use the same types of ammunition in their weapons in training as they do in the Global War on Terror”… this is important… that includes the DU anti-tank ammunition.
That, you know, could be another reason they really really don’t want people to think about the CAUSES of cancer.