Navy Napalm Stocks in Fallbrook Will Be Broken Down, Sold

After years of discussion and months of permit applications, a private company is set to remove 2.7 million gallons of Vietnam War-era napalm stored at a Navy weapons station near Fallbrook.

Steven Hogg, president of Phoenix-based Bud’s Oil Service Inc., said Monday his firm will begin breaking the napalm down into its basic ingredients next month. He said the gasoline and Styrofoam-like pellets that result will be trucked out of San Diego County through the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base.

The state Department of Health Services last week sent Hogg the final permit he needs to do the job, along with 18 pages of terms and conditions designed to ensure that the task is done safely.

“That’s what we were waiting for,” Hogg said. He said the machine that will process the napalm is awaiting inspection by the numerous state and local agencies that have authority over the operation. The process will begin no later than April 30 and should be finished within a year.

The napalm--a flammable, sticky mix of gasoline, benzene and polystyrene--has been stored in 33,800 aluminum canisters for more than a decade at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station. Navy officials have said the canisters are the Navy’s last stocks of napalm.

In World War II, Korea and Vietnam, napalm bombs were dropped on concentrations of enemy troops. The polystyrene--a form of plastic--made the gasoline in the bombs into a jelly-like substance that caused the burning mixture to stick to the clothes and bodies of anyone nearby.

The Navy has been seeking to get rid of the napalm for six years. In January, 1982, Navy officials accepted a $182,000 bid from two trucking firms, but the companies backed out of the deal a year later, claiming that environmental restrictions made the salvage operation too costly.

But Bud’s Oil Service found otherwise, and agreed in November, 1983, to pay the Navy $380,000 for the right to salvage the napalm. That right brought with it the scrutiny of the state and county health departments, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the local Air Pollution Control District.

The 18-page permit issued to the firm last week includes more than 100 conditions and regulations. The permit spells out the kind of training, record-keeping and security the company must provide, and requires that the firm notify the state within 24 hours of any “non-compliance which may endanger health or the environment.”

As a result, Hogg said, the project will be “as safe as digging dirt.”

The processor that will be used to break down the napalm sits on a 40-foot by 50-foot concrete pad at the weapons station. It includes numerous pipes and tubes and four tanks, ranging in size from 2,000 to 20,000 gallons. It is covered by a roof but not enclosed.

As the napalm is separated into a gasoline-benzene mixture and the polystyrene pellets, the by-products will be stored in the tanks, and the aluminium canisters will be cleaned. Every three weeks or so, the gasoline will be loaded onto fuel trucks and hauled through Camp Pendleton to Interstate 5. The polystyrene will be disposed of in a similar fashion.

Hogg said he has contracts with two Los Angeles-area firms to purchase the gasoline mixture and the polystyrene, which can be used to make Styrofoam. He said an Arizona firm has agreed to buy the surplus aluminum canisters and will pick them up at the site.

Hogg said the three contracts will bring the company about twice the $380,000 the firm agreed to pay the Navy for the napalm.