Chemical runoff from missile mfg taints AZ monkey colony's water supply

A week after the University of Washington signed a letter of intent to lease the former Mesa-area monkey farm from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in May 2011, a defense contractor next door filed a lawsuit against its own insurance companies.  That contractor, Nammo Talley, had polluted the soil and water on the land just south and east of the monkey sanctuary over decades of manufacturing rocket systems. It wanted the insurers to help pay for the cleanup. The lawsuit explained that part of Nammo’s business involved replacing rocket propellant in aged and yet to be deployed missiles and rocket motors. It used water to bore out the rocket fuel, then screened and recovered the solid materials and discharged the leftover liquids into unlined evaporation ponds.  Chemicals from those ponds gradually leached into the groundwater, causing an underground plume that has been moving west into the Indian community toward the primate center. Because of the center’s remote location, the only water source for UW's monkey colony is groundwater from two wells. From 1966 to 1986, Nammo Talley also burned explosive waste materials at a thermal treatment center. The materials were spread thinly and burned on bare soil, contaminating the land across the Salt River canal from the monkey farm with lead, perchlorate and other chemical additives. - AZ Central