History as Prologue: Vieques vs. U.S. Navy

Editor’s Note: As part of Planet Waves’ series on the Navy’s proposed use of the NW coast as aВ target practice range, today’s column provides an historicalВ accountВ of anВ actual Navy weapons testing site,В its environmental impactВ and citizen efforts toВ shut itВ down. — efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

On April 19, 1999, David Sanes Rodrigues, a citizen of Vieques, Puerto Rico was working for the Navy as a security guard at its Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facilities (AFWTF) when the Navy dropped two errant Mk-82 bombs 100 yards away from his post, killing him instantly. Sanes Rodrigues’ death sparked a series of protests and demonstrations that drew a global cross-section of celebrities, politicians and religious leaders who brought visibility to the Navy’s weapons-testing activities and ultimately ended its nearly 60-year’s presence on the island.

FromВ 1941-42, В 2/3 of the island (22,000 acres) of Vieques was purchased by the NavyВ as an extension toВ Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on the Puerto Rican mainland. Vieques wasВ planned asВ a safe haven for the British fleetВ ifВ Great Britain fell to Nazi Germany.В  In 1947, with the onset of the Cold War, the US switched from a policy of disarmament to perpetual armed competition, and the Navy announced its desire to use Vieques for training. InВ 1948 bombing exercises began, and continued for the next 55 years.

The eastern half of Vieques was used for bombing practices, the western half for weapons storage. Vieques was bombed an average of 180 days per year. In 1998, the last year before protests interrupted maneuvers, the Navy dropped 23,000 bombs on the island, the majority of which contained explosives.В Over the course of US Navy occupancy, nearly 22 million pounds of military and industrial waste, such as oils, solvents, lubricants, lead paint, acid and 55 US gallonВ  drums, were deposited on the western portion of the island. The extent of leaching is unknown.

The Navy’s use of Vieques has long been a point of contention between Puerto Rico and the US, causing political unrest over US presence. Aside from effectively endingВ Vieques’ local agricultural economy, the environmental impact of weapons tested and their effect on public health — specifically the rising rate of cancer among Viequans, added heat to Puerto Rico’s simmering resentment toВ our naval presence.

It took Sanes-Rodrigues’ death by accidental bombing to bring the unrest from simmer to full boil. Immediately after his death, Puerto Rican citizens began coordinated acts of civil disobedience against naval weapons testing on the island, including encampments on the base’s bombing practice grounds set with the aim of disrupting weapons-testing. These practice-range incursions triggered world-wide attention, drawing participation ofВ notable people in the protests. Many spent time in jail, including environmental attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., the Reverend Al Sharpton, actor Edward James Olmos and Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Charged with trespassing on US military territory,В they received short-term jail sentences ranging from one to six months.В The protests were non-violent, calling for “peace in Vieques,” a cry that rose from the island all the way to the Vatican, echoed by Pope John Paul II.В  Planet Waves contributor Paloma Todd participated in one of the many protests on the island.

In responseВ to public outcry and disruption of weapons testing, the US and Puerto Rican governments negotiated a deal for the US Navy to vacate the island. The Navy came to an agreement toВ formally relinquish its hold on the islandВ as ofВ May 1, 2003, assigning a portion of its former practice grounds to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Department of the Interior and the remainder to the government of Vieques.

Sanes Rodrigues’ death isВ only partВ ofВ an evenВ darker legacy left behind by the Navy. According to an article appearing May 10, 2003 in The Orlando Sentinel, the island’s residents’ rates of cancer were higher than the rest of Puerto Rico. The Sentinel article excerpted below, cites bullets coated with depleted uranium as a possible cause:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The 9,100 residents of the offshore island of Vieques, where for six decades the U.S. Navy bombed, stored and burned weapons, are 27 percent more likely to have cancer than other Puerto Ricans, according to a study released Friday by the commonwealth’s Health Department.

Cancer patients in Vieques, where about 40 new cases are diagnosed each year, also are more likely to die — a trend health officials hope to reverse with more preventive-medicine and early-detection programs, said Puerto Rico Health Secretary Johnny RullГЎn as he laid out the statistics.

Shortly after two wayward bombs killed a civilian security guard near the target range and set off the Vieques controversy in April 1999, the Navy was forced to admit that it improperly used a few hundred bullets coated with depleted uranium. The substance, a carcinogen that remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years, allows bullets to pierce tanks.В Many of the bullets were never found.

Although studies are far from complete, health officials noted that colon cancer in women and lung-cancer rates are higher in Vieques than in Puerto Rico, even though both populations smoke at similar levels.

“I seldom touch our local fish anymore,” В said Vieques activist Myrna V. PagГЎn, who had a hysterectomy last year to treat uterine cancer. “Here the waters have been contaminated. No one can deny that.”

After the Navy’s exit, the Center for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) releasedВ the final assessment on the safety of the fish and shellfish from the island, dated July 21, 2003 andВ in Sept. 15, 2003 the final report on theВ quality of the air pathway for the Vieques Bombing Range Site. Not surprisingly, these assessments found that the fish and shellfish were safe to eat and the air contaminants released from the former Naval property posed no health hazard to residents.

While the live impact range, the most contaminated zone, was given the highest protected environmental status — that of a wilderness preserve,  the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) declared the refuge a superfund site. That means much of the lands now termed wildlife refuges prohibit humans on the land, and allows the Navy to avoid cleanup responsibility.

Yours & truly,

Fe Bongolan
San Francisco

9 thoughts on “History as Prologue: Vieques vs. U.S. Navy”

  1. B… Seeing it *helps*. Visualizing it clearly in your mind’s eye (to the point of puketility) helps even more.

    As I was reading yesterday about the new ARGUS drone* just released by DARPA (supersurveillance with terapixel capacities) I was reminded that the legendary Argus –who had a 1000 eyes all over his body– was rendered harmless by Hermes, who sees in the dark. Until you get that gobstopper outta the top of your head, that’d be your inner vision. Inner viewing works. Secrecy met with deeper secrecy works. Brew up that just-right-blend of outrage, insight and caritas (like compassion, but a little more active), and you can loosen the apparent integrity of these scenarios.

    Can’t tell you *how* it works, but it does. So yeah. Hit the Calgon, but take the Imponderable with you.

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    *ARGUS, not to be confused with the EU’s environmental survey tool Argos.

  2. victoria,

    You have EPA superfund locations in your locale? Holy Moley I need to find out about my area too. Glad the puking helped. I can do it again if you need.

    And now, you say the fish tested were not even from from the area? So that the CDC tested fish from the Vieques MARKET (imported) and not the Vieques sea water? Dear God, how low have we sunk?

    . . . .AND made a profit by renting out the polluted little island to other war mongers. Will we ever be able to make it up to the earth for all the damage our stupidity and greed and just plain evil has caused. Calgon take me away from all this awareness. I feel like I was caught beating my children.

  3. You know what is really sick? That this kind of irresponsibility did not surprise me at all. That I expect it from the military complex. So thanks for getting sick and puking, it reminds me. Also, it took me to researching the epa superfund locations in my locale. Awareness is something.

    I read a little about Vesquies last night. Hard getting through all the Vesquies tourist information on the web to find anything else about the place. The thing that did surprise me is that the fish they tested were those being sold in the market and that the scientists said those fish were imported. The other thing that I found interesting is that the navy was making millions a year renting the area to u.s. allies to run their war games, too.

    But the war games have stopped on Vieques and that is something.

  4. Fe, Are we saying that the CDC’s final assessment of the safety in eating fish and shellfish from Vieques lacks sincerity? Are we saying that the EPA during the Bush Regime declared the contaminated area a wilderness preserve in order to not have to clean up the contamination?

    Makes me want to puke with shame.

  5. The problem is, until someone got killed, no one was told they were using depleted uranium bullets. I agree, use of this type of weaponry is a blasphemy against life itself.

    Everyone gets shafted in practice and actual use.

  6. Fe, yeah I get that, and it is good evidence of the damages that could be done. It is a good study to bookmark and I am sure there are more.

    It’s not just the military with me though. It’s not just the ocean. It’s the risks we take with really really dangerous elements and chemicals. The things created. I know that we are a big population on a small planet with dwindling resources and that our needs are involving the creation of alot of synthetics. I believe the best chance of survival for our species is mutation. It is why I don’t condone alot of meds and unnecessary antibacterials (I like a little dirt with my food). And of course, I always support diversity. However, some of the byproducts, are way too nasty. I like the physical plane. Nuclear waste and radiation, in whatever form of uranium, is too much in my book. The risk is not worth the marketed rewards.

  7. victoria:

    It’s about what could happen with the next proposed use of land off the most beautiful and pristine coast in the country – the Oregon coastline. That the nevy is planning to use it as a weapons tersting site, knowing what they’ve done before in place like Vieques, is nothing short of a crime that Dick Cheney would commit. And that is pretty damn bad.

  8. Fe, I really don’t like the uranium usage. Nuclear plants freak me out. And now even so called environmentalists are touting it because it is such clean energy. I don’t know why we would want to produce tanks of such nasty stuff when complete disaster is just an earthquake away. Not to mention the amount of water it takes to cool those things. In case of drought, where would our water for survival have to go? Just some thoughts, I think your concern with this contamination is oh so very valid.

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