The Radford Army Ammunitions Plant turned 75 this year. Built long before most environmental regulations were enacted, its focus on security, --- some would say secrecy --- has raised concern about how the explosives it manufactures on site may be affecting the environment. Now, time and technology are changing not only how the Arsenal operates, but also how it communicates with the public beyond its barbed wire boundaries.
It was a different world in 1941 when the Radford Army Ammunitions Plant was being built in southwest Virginia. For most people, environmental concerns about a plant manufacturing armaments were not on the radar.
The still beating heart of this 4-thousand acre facility is a huge ancient looking coal fired power plant that generates the energy for all that goes on here.
Alicia Masson became Lieutenant Commander of the Radford Arsenal last June.
“ We’re tearing this thing down as soon as we can.”
Last month, they broke ground for a new gas powered energy facility here.
Masson calls it “ An enormous win for the environment and the community. It reduces our energy pull --not by a lot but it reduces our environmental signature. The coal power house emissions go away completely.”
Masson is now about half way through her 2-year appointment here. Raised in Colorado, an upbringing that she says made her an environmentalist at heart; she served in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan twice before coming here.
“ We have a housing area at Radford, beautiful colonial homes. My house overlooks the river. So when I first heard about environmental concerns I jumped into that first and having this beautiful river running through our plant of course we feel absolutely to be super responsible.”
Masson is determined to change the narrative of the old army plant to one of openness, not a simple task when the words military and secrets are so often uttered in the same sentence.
“So we are aggressively trying to get the truth out to the public and share… You know. I keep hearing about secrecy. I don’t think it could be more open. And we will continue to be open and continue to share.”
When Masson took command, she increased the number of public meetings from 2 to 5 a year. Community members and environmental activists have noticed her efforts and applaud them. But the hot button for the Radford Arsenal is its practice of outdoor burning of hazardous waste on the banks of the New River.
Masson and Operations Rob Davie take me on a tour of the main plant, huge hulking buildings surrounded by beautiful mountain ridges. We see deer and all kinds of wildlife in the open spaces as we head toward the open burning ground. No burn is happening here today but this is where the sounds of explosions echo along the river. But Davie says, that sound is not what people think it is.
“ The explosives don’t detonate when they’re disposed of. That’s the whole idea. Those sounds are not from disposal those are strictly from testing. “
That’s testing, mostly, of fireworks, manufactured here says Davies. Masson says that’s just one of the misconceptions she’s trying to dispel about the open burning process
“The way that the story sounds, not just to the media but the way that its shared is that we are open burning all hazardous waste here and that is absolutely not true. Our current incinerator with the two burn chambers handles around 80 to 85 percent. (Of all the hazardous waste disposed of on site). That’s not good enough for us so we just sent the design money to take modern technology, current technology, and design one that fits Radford that can be interconnected with the rest of our systems, the rest of our permits. I want it to handle up to 100% but I’m never going to be able to say it’s going to handle 100%. There may be a 2%, there may be a 3 percent (of open burning of hazardous waste remaining) but it will be significantly better than what we have now.
Meantime, air testing by drones flying above the open burning ground is expected to begin in September. But designing a custom state of the art incinerator for the most hazardous waste around will take time, and there is pressure by activists to fast track it.
“ Let’s just say that was even possible there will still be people who complain about that remnant waste or say that we don’t monitor the water --and we do-- or claim that we responsible for something else locally that we’re not, so I don’t think that the concerns – nor would I want concerns by environmentalists to stop being concerned about the environment but I would like for the energy to be focused on things where there truly is a real danger, and here we know that what we’re doing is safe.”
The next community meeting on the Radford Arsenal is Thursday May 12th at the Christiansburg Library
