Air Force to Blast Pollution With Dummy Bombs

Published May 05, 2009

A possible solution to contaminated water under a Utah Air Force base has been falling out of the sky for years.

At the Utah Test and Training Range in the state's West Desert, the Air Force practices dropping fake iron bombs.

The Air Force is also dealing with how to clean up the groundwater underneath the base, which contains the possible carcinogen trichloroethene (TCE). Because of the contamination, the area has been a U.S. EPA Superfund site since 1987.

Iron strips TCE from water, so the Air Force bought a machine to crush up its piles of dummy bombs into small granules (right) and use the iron as a water filter.

Officials plan to drill eight 12-inch bore holes 56 feet into the earth near the base boundary and fill the holes with iron grains from the dummy bombs. The borings will be placed across some of the highest TCE concentrations in the plume reaching into Sunset and Clinton.

As TCE-laden water seeps through the iron columns, which act like a filter, a chemical reaction will strip TCE from the water.

Monitoring wells will be placed in front of and behind the borings so officials can check the barrier's efficacy. And then they will wait.

This is the first time dummy bombs have been enlisted to clean up the environment, and if the test is successful, the use of iron bombs will expand at the Utah site and could be used in other U.S. Department of Defense cleanup efforts.

The Utah base has already been using an iron and sand underground barrier since 2004 to strip TCE out of water headed toward a nearby neighborhood.

^{Via Deseret News

Crushed iron and dummy bombs - by Hill Air Force Base; WWII bombs - CC license by bobster855}

CITRIS: An Incubator of Green Tech Innovation Computing At the University of California's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, scientists are developing thermometers that can reduce electricity demand by as much as a third, working to turn your cell phone into a traffic-monitoring device or a medical aid, and much more....	Can Collective Intelligence Save the Planet? A look at the mental models that impede management progress, the role of collective intelligence in solving climate problems, and just how far off-base many people are about what business is for....
London Mayor to Launch 'Flagship' Low-Carbon Zones Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged £3 million to develop ten flagship low carbon zones throughout the city, aimed at creating jobs and cutting carbon emissions....	Fortune Data Centers' New Facility Offers Big Savings, LEED Certification Computing The new, 78,000-square foot facility will save Fortune Data Centers an estimated $4 million per year in energy and cooling costs, in part by rethinking data center design traditions....
Target Australia to Eliminate Plastic Bags, South Australia's Bag Ban Begins Design The plastic bag ban in the state of South Australia goes into effect this month, leaving customers to choose between reusable or compostable bags. Target Australia has also pledged to eliminate plastic bags from all its stores in Australia by June....	Carbon Dioxide: An Effective Firefighter Design Researchers in Japan have found that pellets make of water and carbon dioxide frozen and bonded together uses less water and releases less CO2 than some fire-suppression methods....
Grazing Goats Green Google's Grounds In what might be a sign of a new trend, Google has brought goats onto its California headquarters to clear grass and weeds, reducing fire risk in a low-carbon way....	China Explores Putting a Tax on Carbon Climate China's Ministry of Finance is developing a study that explores the effects and impacts of levying environmental taxes to curb overall emissions of greenhouse gases in the country that currently emits the most GHGs per year....

Blogs

Air Force to Blast Pollution With Dummy Bombs