Soldier-Killing Toxic Burn Pits Unnecessary But Profitable

June 22, 2009 By Kelly Kennedy, Army Times [Excerpts]

As legislators work to pass a bill ending long-term use of open-air burn pits in combat zones, military officials must figure out what to do with all that garbage.

A contractor at Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan, thinks he has hit upon at least a partial solution: composting. “Composters would solve 98 percent of the problem,” said Clarke Jones, an environmental officer with contractor IFONE Inc.

“I’m an environmental guy. I’d like to make the living conditions better.” Jones said so-called “in-vessel” composting units, used on many farms in the U.S., could compost organic material within five days, and the resulting mulch could be used by Afghans or Iraqis to add nutrients to their crops. Local workers could be hired to recycle plastics and sort out hazardous waste, which should not be burned in a pit anyway.

Jones said he believes the cost would be about the same as what’s needed to operate the pits.

He said he experienced the burn-pit operation at Kandahar firsthand.

His office was about 250 yards from the pit, and he said he saw troops breathing in the dense, black smoke. He returned to the U.S. last fall.

“It was deplorable,” he said. “Four men were sent home while I was there for respiratory infections.

“Our environmental health officer went jogging one morning at 5 a.m. and caught the burn-pit operators burning 150 mattresses. There was no oversight.” Jones said he was told that two used incinerators were brought in to handle the waste but were worn out, so contractors continued to operate the pit.

Jones began working with his partner, Dean Richardson, also of IFONE, to come up with a composting plan and a budget.

But he said every time someone gave him and Richardson the goahead, something would happen to deter the project.

Now, Jones and Richardson are trying to work through Pentagon sources, rather than Kandahar officials, to bring composting online in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We have a completely non-burn solution,” Richardson said. “The labor is cheap and the people need jobs, and they could use the mulch to grow food.” Richardson said composting would even work at a large base, such as Joint Base Balad, Iraq, which produces 240 tons of waste every day.

He said composters can last up to 20 years, and local workers could be taught to keep them running long after U.S. forces leave.

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