Toxic sand from across the world

How is it that 6,700 tons of sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead – 80 rail cars worth – is coming all the way from Kuwait to Idaho, destined for a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise? The AP reports that American Ecology Corp., operator of the dump, has previously disposed of low-level radioactive waste and hazardous materials from U.S. military bases overseas at facilities in Idaho, Nevada and Texas, according to American Ecology spokesman Chad Hyslop, who is based in Boise.
“As you can imagine, the host countries of those bases don’t want the waste in their country,” Hyslop told the AP. The sand is coming from Camp Doha, a U.S. Army base in Kuwait, where it was contaminated after military vehicles and munitions caught fire during the first Iraq war. Click below to read the full AP story by reporter Jessie Bonner.