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NEWS & LETTERS, February 2008 - March 2008Defense Depot BombMemphis, Tenn.-- I got a call from the Department of Defense (DOD) in December saying, "We found two bomb casings on Dunn Field. The good news is that we got the Memphis Police Department to move them!" It's not good news to find more chemical bombs next to our community, which has already suffered so much from the DOD's toxic waste. Dunn Field is the most contaminated part of the old Defense Depot. It turned out the DOD had found the bombs two days earlier. No one had been notified except the Restoration Advisory Board. It's left up to our group, Defense Depot–Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee, to inform people. We're tired of the government sitting on information and not getting it into the community's hands. We had the same problem years ago, when it took them 21 days to notify us that an accident happened on Dunn Field. After that the government was supposed to notify us within the hour when something was found. There are certain protocols the government is supposed to follow when something is found. They didn't have a containment tent, which they were supposed to. The police should not be moving these bombs. They are not trained to deal with chemical weapons. The Depot admitted they didn't know what was in the bomb casings. The police moved it through the community with no sirens or alarms. We had been told in a case like that alarms were supposed to go off, and warnings across the TV set. They never told us where they moved it. The government went against protocol as usual. It's a Black community. They came to a conclusion in a few hours that the bombs were harmless, but it takes longer to get results from tests for chemicals. We don't know what chemicals they tested for. DOD plays games with us. Dunn Field is supposed to be cleaned up. And they're still finding bombs. The government has sold part of it already. What's going to happen when they open some business up? They will put employees and the community in harm's way. What does the government expect from the community? The community doesn't trust them. They prove all the time they can't be trusted. --Doris Bradshaw |
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