Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Appalachia, in southwestern Virginia near Roanoke, openly burns toxic military munitions and other waste, just like the burn pits the Pentagon used in Iraq and Afghanistan that have been implicated in service members’ serious health conditions.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus participated in a 12-day Walk for Appalachia’s Future in late May and early June that trekked very close to the ammunition plant.
One night after a community dinner, Alyssa Carpenter, co-founder and co-chair of the group Citizens for Arsenal Accountability, spoke about her own health issues that likely resulted from the Army’s toxic pollution. She also discussed her group’s effort to hold the Pentagon accountable for the pollution generated at the plant and the illness that has resulted. Citizens for Arsenal Accountability opposes any burning of toxic materials, whether in open pits or in a controlled space.
ALYSSA CARPENTER: The Radford Army Ammunition Plant is the largest polluter of Virginia and the largest arms manufacturer of the United States, I believe. They practice open burning and incineration of toxic chemicals to demilitarize our army’s weapons. So they are both a production facility for ammunition, so it goes out and it also comes back in to be demilitarized once it has expired.
MELINDA TUHUS: And it’s an open burn process, which means whatever is burned, goes just out into the air. And you had said that it’s actually near a lot of vulnerable facilities. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
ALYSSA CARPENTER: Absolutely. So whenever you’re doing open burning, all of the contaminants are put directly into the environment. And so it’s really concerning because there are, within a 10 kilometer distance around the Radford Army Ammunition Plant 8 elementary schools, 12 daycare centers, 2 major universities and host of family farms, residences and nursing homes for our elder populations.
MELINDA TUHUS: Now you have some direct impact. Explain how you think or know that your problems are related to what goes on there.
ALYSSA CARPENTER: When I started college at Virginia Tech, I lived first at Fox Ridge, which is just down the road off of Prices Fork. And then after about two years, I moved to McCoy, the community that is right across the river from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, which was less than a mile from the ammunition plant.
I don’t have any history of thyroid issues in my family. So after I learned about these issues that, you know, my community was experiencing, we founded this organization and then four years later, I was diagnosed with the exact same issues that we had been advocating for our community.
I have thyroid disease and I had a goiter, which is where your whole thyroid just kind of swells up as well as multiple nodules. Those nodules were concerning because they can turn into cancer. And so I was advised that my whole thyroid needed to be removed due to how diseased it was and how many thyroid nodules I had. So within a month, my whole thyroid was removed. After that I had to begin taking synthetic thyroid hormones. And so my body has been really struggling to adjust. And, I’ve had to kind of jump through the medical hoops of advocating for myself to receive proper care.
MELINDA TUHUS: When were you diagnosed?
ALYSSA CARPENTER: July of 2020.
MELINDA TUHUS: So you mentioned that you have Earth Justice working with you. I know they’re very reputable and a pretty successful legal operation. What is your group strategy for getting rid of this open burning of toxic materials?
ALYSSA CARPENTER: Absolutely. So we’ve been working with a coalition of people all across the United States with the Cease Fire campaign. And, you know, through that strategy, we’ve been engaging with the EPA in order to end the loophole that allows open burning to continue at these types of facilities.
We’ve also done a lot of advocacy with our local representatives and our senators such as Tim Kaine, to kind of help us halt the situation so we can make sure that if there is a safer alternative for a community. (Alternatives) that are actually explored rather than choosing not to see what the alternatives are and install technology that is very old and that doesn’t actually solve any of our issues and in fact, creates more issues for our community as far as pollution goes.
MELINDA TUHUS: So the flyer I read, it sounded like you were saying without being specific, that there were safer for alternatives. What can you say about that?
ALYSSA CARPENTER: Yeah, so with our coalition work, we’re learning that there are a lot of different communities that have achieved a safer alternative than burning because incineration is burning and open burning is burning and neither of those methods of disposal are safe for communities.
And so we know that there are technologies. We know that some communities have already implemented them and are using them at their facilities rather than relying on burning.
So with all of the kind of the ball-rolling in the media and in legislative circles with veterans receiving support for their health issues that have come from open burning, it’s really important for us to let everybody know that it’s not just veterans.
It is my neighbors. it is your neighbors. It is our entire community. It is people in communities like Guam, Puerto Rico, Alabama, Kentucky and California who are also experiencing these issues. These are civilians and it’s absolutely happening to us as well. And there needs to be an expansion of the benefits that are awarded in order to achieve justice for our community as well.
For more information, visit Citizens for Arsenal Accountability on Facebook at Facebook.com/NRVCAA.
