Site Characterization for Munitions Constituents
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EPA Federal Facilities Forum Issue Paper: SITE CHARACTERIZATION FOR MUNITIONS CONSTITUENTS Solid Waste and EPA-505-S-11-001 Emergency Response January 2012 (5203P) www.epa.gov EPA Federal Facilities Forum Issue Paper: SITE CHARACTERIZATION FOR MUNITIONS CONSTITUENTS Disclaimer Information presented in this Federal Facilities Forum Issue Paper is not intended, nor can it be relied upon, to create any rights enforceable by any party in litigation with the United States or any other party. Use or mention of trade names does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. EPA/505/S-11/001 EPA Federal Facilities Forum Issue Paper: SITE CHARACTERIZATION FOR MUNITIONS CONSTITUENTS This paper was prepared by: T.F. Jenkins2, S.R. Bigl1, A.D. Hewitt1*, J.L. Clausen1, H.D. Craig5, M.E. Walsh1, R. Martel3, K. Nieman4, S. Taylor1, and M.R. Walsh1. Technical guidance and direction in the development of this paper was provided by members of the Federal Facilities Forum Munitions Subcom- mittee: S. Tzhone6, R. Mayer6, S. Hirsh7, H.D. Craig5, M. McEaddy8, D. Maddox8, M.T. Cooke8. For fur- ther information on this document, contact Monica McEaddy at (703) 603-0044. The Federal Facilities Forum website is online at: http://www.epa.gov/tio/tsp/fedforum.htm This Federal Facilities Forum Issue Paper: Site Characterization For Munitions Constituents was pre- pared to provide remedial project managers and other federal, state, and private personnel working on hazardous waste sites the technical information needed to make decisions regarding the nature of energet- ic residues on Department of Defense training ranges (and other munitions sites such as Formerly Used Defense Sites), sampling strategies that provide representative samples, and analytical methods developed to characterize these samples. This paper is not intended to include discussions of the safety issues associated with sites contaminat- ed with energetic residues. Examples of explosives safety issues include, but are not limited to: geophys- ical detection methods, explosion (detonation) hazards, toxicity of secondary explosives, and personal protective equipment. Information pertaining to geophysical investigations has been summarized by ESTCP/ITRC (2006) and toxicity concerns can be found in Roberts and Hartley (1992), Yinon (1990), and Sunahara et al. (2009). Also, this paper is not intended to serve as a guide for geophysical investiga- tion of unexploded ordnance (UXO) or discarded military munitions (DMM), or chemical sampling and analysis of bulk high explosives, primary explosives where concentrations exceed 20,000 mg/kg (2%), or secondary explosives in soil where concentrations exceed 100,000 mg/kg (10%). It is imperative that any persons working on sites thought to be contaminated with energetic residues thoroughly familiarize themselves with the physical and toxic properties of the materials potentially pre- sent and take all measures as may be prudent and/or prescribed by law to protect life, health, and proper- ty. These conditions present a potential detonation hazard; therefore, explosive safety procedures and safety precautions should be identified before initiating site characterization activities in such environ- ments. 1 USACE, CRREL, Hanover, NH 5 EPA, Region 10, Seattle, WA 2 Bowhead, Vicksburg, MS 6 EPA, Region 6, Dallas, TX 3 University of Quebec 7 EPA, Region 3, Philadelphia, PA 4 Select Engineering Services, Layton, UT 8 EPA, FFRRO, Washington, DC * Deceased 9 EPA, OSRTI, Washington, DC i Table of Contents Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................................................. v Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................................................................ viii Nomenclature ................................................................................................................................................... xii Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................1 Purpose and Scope ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Background.......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Energetic chemicals ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Gun and Small Rocket Propellant Formulations................................................................................................ 5 Composition..................................................................................................................................... 5 Grain size and shape ...................................................................................................................... 6 Ignition Train .................................................................................................................................... 7 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Secondary (high) explosives ................................................................................................................................. 9 Important physical and chemical properties of energetic compounds .......................................................... 9 Fate and transport issues .................................................................................................................................. 11 Residue deposition at training ranges .......................................................................................................... 13 Propellant residues at firing points ................................................................................................................. 13 Explosives residues at impact areas .............................................................................................................. 15 Accumulation of energetic residues at various types of DoD ranges ....................................................... 19 Hand grenade ranges ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Antitank rocket range ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Impact areas ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 Firing point areas ................................................................................................................................................ 25 Artillery, tank, and mortar ranges ................................................................................................................... 27 Artillery and tank range firing points ................................................................................................................ 29 Artillery ranges away from impact areas and firing points ........................................................................... 30 Artillery and mortar range target/impact areas ............................................................................................. 30 Artillery ranges near low-order (partial) detonations and detonation craters ............................................ 31 Bombing ranges ................................................................................................................................................ 31 Open Burn/Open Detonation (OB/OD) Ranges ............................................................................................ 32 Small arms ranges ............................................................................................................................................ 33 Propellant residues at firing points ................................................................................................................... 33 Site characterization ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Soil sampling studies ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Results from discrete sampling at ranges ....................................................................................................... 39 Results from MULTI-INCREMENT samples at ranges .................................................................................... 40 Comparison of discrete, wheel, box, and MIS approaches at impact areas and firing points................. 42 Sampling depth ................................................................................................................................................... 43 Vegetation ............................................................................................................................................................ 45 Sampling Design ................................................................................................................................................