What do we make of "plume crud"
June 25th, 2009 by BrokeSnake
This story is surfacing due to an amendment that is being brought forth today on H.R. 2647 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. See a summary of that legislation here.
Undoubtedly, there is an issue with some of the private contractors willingness to allow "bad things" to happen with our trips. Something about burn pits and harmful situations where are troops are utilized to do some very nasty, unhealthy things.
"The same private contractors and military brass that brought our soldiers death by electric shower and contaminated water are able to use poorly paid enlisted men and women, wearing little or no protection, to do their highly profitable dirty work. These pits are vast. A single burn site might contain hundreds of tons of machinery, plastics, dioxin, benzene, paint and solvents, heavy metals, and medical waste — including amputated limbs.
Soldiers tasked with this filthy job have coined a name for the oily sludge coughed up and vomited out after exposure to the choking clouds of smoke: plume crud. Local doctors are seeing increased numbers of severe headaches, nausea, and serious breathing problems. The situation has become so critical that groups like the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America are urging lawmakers to take immediate action."
Did you really site DailyKos as the source for this post? I would advise all readers to take this with a rather large grain of salt. I never heard of these so called pits during my time in Iraq nor have I heard about them from Marines I work with.
Here is a link on the subject from the Army Times. "Concern about burn-pit exposure began when Military Times launched an investigation last October, citing a document from Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, former bioenvironmental flight commander for Joint Base Balad in Iraq."
I appreciate the service of our fellow troops just like I know most all who read this blog. The purpose of writing the post is to bring up something that has been proposed in the Legislature…. awareness. We can argue the issues all day long, but I can't understand why you want to argue my method of delivering it. DailyKos had the story, I cited it. I don't enjoy the lion's share of their work either, but they had the story. Aside from that, the issue is real and there were other methods of discovering that than just the Dkos post.
Good to go, then. I'll retract my statement. I just tend not to trust anything posted on DKos.
Hello,
I agree 100% with the burn pits being a health hazard but I disagree once again with the whole "waste water" term and contaminated water routine. The one base where there was trouble with no chlorine residual in the water tanks and the KBR whistle blower who testified before congress (he could not hack the country and wanted to be famous, he was and is full of it) was actually being run by the Army. KBR did not run a ROWPU at that site. Also the "waste water" is NOT blackwater. It just refers to the municipal water that is run through the ROWPPU that is rejected. The TDS is lowered to bring it up to drinking standards for the Army. The "reject" is tested and chlorinated, it just has a higher TDS count. I get my water from a well that taps into a limestone aquifer and the TDS is comparable to the "waste water" that everyone keeps making a big deal out of. I showered and brushed my teeth EVERY DAY for 34 months with this so called "waste water" with no ill effect other than dry skin because the chlorine we put in was so much higher than the States to maintain the residual in the desert heat.
p.s. I am fighting AIG (money grubbing sons of camels) for medical benefits now for well over a year and my trial still does not come up for another three months. I need multiple surgeries for torn meniscus in both knees & herniated discs in multiple places in my back. I live with constant pain and my condition has grown far worse than what it was when I came home.
crazedchef
still waiting……………
ROWPU = Reverse Osmosis Water Purification unit
TDS = Total Dissolved Salts
AIG = (the whores of Babylon), nay the fleas of a thousand camels infest their nether regions
Hello again,
I forgot to mention that the ROWPU unit is a multi-stage water purification unit. ALL OF THE WATER goes through multiple filtration steps BEFORE it even gets to the RO membranes.
p.s. still hate AIG
Hello again,
I forgot to mention that I spent 5 months at the RPC in 2006 (Radwaniyah Palace Complex) where that poor Green Beret was electrocuted. I was once shocked in the shower, scared the crap out of me considering that I was standing in water. I knew something was definitely out of whack. I made it known to Superiors, they laughed. Just told everyone not to use that shower.
p.s. The above posts about the water purification in no way defends KBR, I just wrote what I experienced first hand. We in water did our best to make sure everyone was protected and was delivered a safe product.
crazedchef
time for another pain pill……..
It doesn't matter how poorly the soldiers are treated or how many of them die, as long as more fresh meat is ready to go to boot camp for 9 weeks and sign up. So if you want better treatment for existing soldiers, make it harder for the pigs to find new grunts by getting rid of moral conduct waivers and ceasing the recruitment of the impoverished and undereducated. Pretty simple really. Any kid joining today has little ground to stand on as far as complaints about treatment once in. Its pretty cut and dry that a bunch of rotten bastards run the Pentagon and the U.S. military recruitment efforts.