Mass. allows grenade use at guard base - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Mass. allows grenade use at guard base

FALMOUTH, Mass. — State environmental officials have given the National Guard permission to use pyrotechnic hand grenades during training exercises at a Cape Cod base after agreeing they were not environmentally damaging.

Military officials say the use of the grenades, which sound like M80 fireworks, will be used starting in the spring to simulate the improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All pyrotechnics and explosives were banned at Camp Edwards in 1997 after chemicals from explosives were found in groundwater.

The state Environmental Management Commission lifted the ban on the grenades Wednesday after testing determined that chemicals in them are benign.

The Cape Cod Times reports that their use will be reviewed in two years to determine if they have created a hazard.