Dangerous to People Inhaling

(Click on title for original source.)

near Pinon Canyon

Monday - June 21, 2008

"Fort Carson officials announced Friday that they will allow either state or federal investigators to test the soil at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad for uranium contamination. The announcement comes after State Representative Wes McKinley announced last Wednesday that he had four soil samples from the training facility tested and that those samples showed uranium concentrations 10 times higher than normal. Officials from the state health department said that they would be willing to discuss sampling at Pinon Canyon with the army, if requested. The health department said that while they don’t consider the sample data provided by Representative McKinley to be a sign of any imminent public health threat, the uranium content reported in McKinley’s samples would be dangerous to people inhaling the heavy metal.

McKinley believes that the state of Colorado shares jurisdiction over Pinon Canyon with the army and he wants testing done to determine the extent and source of the uranium in the soil samples. McKinley doesn’t want congress to authorize any further expansion of the training area until the contamination questions have been answered and the sight cleaned up if necessary."