Go Green

By John Sutter

The U.S. military is widely said to be one of the country’s major polluters. Former and current shooting ranges are part of the problem, since many of the military’s bullets used in training are made of lead, which is a neurotoxin. Oklahoma is home to more than 140 former federal military training sites, according this 2006 U.S. Department of Defense list.

In this week’s environment podcast, I talked with Angela Hughes, of the state Department of Environmental Quality, about a state program to clean up former National Guard shooting ranges and training grounds. In all, 57 former armories will be cleaned up and turned over to local governments in coming years, Hughes said.

Have you used shooting ranges? Are you concerned about contamination? Feel free to e-mail me (jsutter [at] oklahoman.com) or comment on this story. Your input will help with an upcoming story for The Oklahoman.

By John Sutter

I sat down last week with Eddie Terrill of the state Department of Environmental Quality to talk about the air here in Oklahoma — and how that compares to some of the trouble the world has seen with air pollution at the Beijing Olympics. By one measure, the air in Beijing is more than 5 1/2 times worse than the air in OKC. As I wrote in a story for The Oklahoman:

Oklahoma City has averaged about 16 micrograms of coarse soot per cubic meter of air so far in 2008, according to federal data. That’s less than the U.S. national average. Beijing averages 89 micrograms of soot per cubic meter in 2004, according to the World Bank.

According to readings taken by the BBC, Beijing’s air hit an abnormal 275 micrograms per cubic meter on Aug. 10, two days after the start of the Olympics.

“Most of (the pollutants) cause asthma-like symptoms: shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, coughing, just general irritation in the breathing passages in the lungs … they’re lung irritants is what they are,” Terrill said.

You can find much more about the air in Oklahoma — including a list of major polluters and a breakdown of air pollution sources — on the paper’s clean air page. The state DEQ says air pollution, particularly from ozone, is a statewide public health issue.