Over several decades, the U.S. military dumped millions of pounds of weapons of mass destruction into the ocean. Enormous amounts of mustard gas, nuclear material, high explosives, and chemical weapons were dropped into waters near Europe, Japan, and the Philippines. In the U.S., weapons were dumped all up and down our Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico coasts.

It's all going to leak into the environment.

Unless, that is, the Army starts taking responsibility for its mess. As it is now, they haven't looked at any of these sites since the '70s, and have no plans to recover anything.

Meanwhile, casings are corroding, and tons of hazardous wastes are starting to leak out. Every year, fishermen are injured when they dredge up concentrated mustard gas or some other deadly surprise. Still, the Army has refused to inform the public where the sites are or what they contain.

Greenpeace has fought ocean dumping for nearly 30 years. Check out these photos of barrels of nuclear waste being dropped onto a Greenpeace boat:





The nuclear and chemical industries fought us tooth and nail, but in hindsight almost everyone would probably find it hard to believe that dumping hazardous waste into the ocean was ever considered a reasonable idea. The oil and gas industry has pretty much evaded scrutiny so far, but eventually people will realize that we need to do more to protect our coasts from spills. I just hope it doesn't take another Exxon Valdez before we get there.

John H