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Environment

DOD Funding of Perchlorate Sampling Recommended

July 5, 2004 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 82, Issue 27

The military should set aside dedicated funds to determine whether its firing ranges are polluting groundwater with perchlorate, says a new General Accounting Office report (GAO-04-601). The Department of Defense should provide specific funding for sampling groundwater at "operational ranges" likely to have perchlorate contamination, the report says. Perchlorate, a component of solid rocket fuel, can disrupt functioning of the thyroid. The report also recommends that DOD revise its current cost estimates of between $16 billion and $165 billion for cleaning unexploded ordnance, discarded munitions, and constituents of munitions from its firing ranges. GAO calls these estimates "questionable," in part because they were based on unvalidated cost assumptions that differed among the armed services. GAO notes that DOD disagrees with the report's findings and recommendations. The report is available on the Internet at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04601.pdf.

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