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Environmentally Sustainable Neighbors/Depot

The Blue Grass Army Depot covers 14,000 acres in Madison County, Kentucky near the city of Richmond. It is home to a chemical weapons stockpile, has several industrial tenants, and serves as a “storage and transfer station” for a wide range of weapons and other military and warfare items. For better or for worse, the Depot is here to stay. The chemical weapons disposal mission at the Depot is expected to last till 2020 and it is likely that the transfer activities will continue as long as the U.S. is engaged in war and conflict overseas. The Depot is considered by the local government and commerce leaders as a major economic player.

All over the country, communities living near military bases have been economically and environmentally devastated from lasting pollution from the bases, and ultimately the refusal by the military and private industry to clean up its mess. In cases where the military vacates the property and turns it over to local government, the land has even less a chance of clean-up due to the attractive financial benefits of quick development. Often times, community members have little say in what happens at the base.

Based on KEF’s long and successful history of environmental leadership in Madison County, we see the issue of future use of the Blue Grass Army Depot as an opportunity for positive community-based decision making; decisions that will help protect our health and the environment long into the future. Without it, the fate of our community’s economic and environmental well-being will be determined only by “the bottom-line,” which ignores long-term consequences of toxic contamination. Our goal is to develop community leadership on, and a community-based platform for, safe, sustainable future for the Blue Grass Army Depot.

KEF wants to ensure that as long as the Blue Grass Army Depot is in our midst, that it operates in as environmentally sustainable manner as possible, cleans up the toxic messes it has already made, and does not attract new dirty industrial tenants.

To help faciltate that goal KEF has begun to bring together a team of fenceline residents, environmental researchers and health advocates to compile data on current Depot activities and historical contamination sites.

 

  


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