Evaluation of Footprint Reduction Methodology at the Cuny Table in the Former Badlands Bombing Range (2000 ESTCP Project)

摘要

As a result of past military training and weapons-testing activities, an estimated 12 million hectares (approximately 30 million acres) of U.S. land is potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) and/or weapons testing- and training-related artifacts. These contaminated areas include sites designated for base realignment and closure (BRAC) and formerly used defense sites (FUDS). Using current technologies, the costs associated with detection, identification, and mapping of this contamination has been estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Current surface-based technologies have shown improvements in the ability to detect subsurface UXO but are unable to reliably discriminate UXO from other items that pose no risk. These approaches are generally labor intensive, slow, and expensive. Significant cost savings could be achieved if it is demonstrated that advanced airborne methods can provide a substitute for a portion of the surface-based applications. Typically, airborne magnetometers have not been used for UXO detection because of limitations in the physics and an inability to position the magnetic sensors in close proximity to the targets at or beneath the earth s surface. Recent demonstrations and advances in airborne magnetic systems have led to significantly improved performance over prior generation airborne systems. In addition to the aforementioned potential cost savings, an advanced airborne approach will also provide a safer operating environment for personnel performing UXO detection and mapping (stand-off versus direct ground contact), an ability to conduct surveys on difficult terrain or in locations not readily accessible from the surface, and a passive, nonintrusive approach by reducing or eliminating disturbance of indigenous plant and animal habitat.