Grantsville residents and military watchdogs want the Army to move munitions detonations that send earthquakelike shocks through the community.
"I have not been shaken in 20 years in Southern California like I have been in two years in Grantsville," said resident Jeannine Johnson.TAD has detonation areas in its North Area, near Grantsville, and in the South Area 20 miles farther from the residential community. All of the routine detonations - part of TAD's demilitarization mission - that have been carried out at the post so far this year have been in the South Area, but there have been emergency detonations closer to Grantsville.
"We have to destroy this stuff or it becomes a danger to our workers," said TAD spokesman Jeff Lind-blad. In emergencies, "we're going to do them in the North Area because it's a heck of a lot easier than taking them down south because of the risk of transporting them outside depot boundaries."
The effects airborne particles from the blasts have on the local population is another concern, and part of the reason Gov. Mike Leavitt organized a subcommittee within the Division of Air Quality is to study the location and effects of the blasts.
The committee heard from a number of Grantsville residents Thursday and will use their input to make recommendations to the governor.
Grantsville resident Lois Wilder said she suffers frequent eye infections she attributes to airborne particles from the blasts. And her house is heavily damaged from shock waves. "On the main floor I have light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. For two days after each detonation I hear popping and cracking sounds around my house."
Chip Ward, who heads the Tooele County Clean Air Coalition, said he also wants the subcommittee to seek answers from the Army about the dangers of the materials it detonates. "The Army has said unexploded ordnance is dangerous," he said. "We need to know if that danger is the result of open detonations."
"We're hoping they'll come up with an alternative to blowing them up in the North Area," said Downwinders spokesman Steve Erickson. "It seems to me that having explosions on the base when you're trying to privatize the base is not in your best interest."