In 1986, several campers were injured on Hurricane Mesa, Washington County — once used as an impact area for grenades and mortars. One of them found an old M-79 40mm artillery shell and threw it into a campfire, where it exploded.

Not only conventional arms may be scattered on such lands, but also germ and chemical weapons. Dugway even tried to annex two possibly contaminated areas in the late '80s, but the BLM opposed the move and simply wanted them cleaned instead.

Other military wastes have "wandered" off military bases in Utah.

For example, Department of Defense environmental studies found that nitrates from explosives at the old Tooele Army Depot had contaminated regional groundwater between the 1940s and 1980s, when problems were discovered.

Nitrate poisoning is potentially fatal to infants, but Army representatives said the situation poses no immediate danger and contamination had not spread far.

The Army also took steps to stop further contamination, which it said had come from some unlined ponds where wastewater was drained — often after washing off equipment contaminated with explosives.

Similarly, military environmental studies reported contamination in groundwater near Hill Air Force Base and the now-closed Defense Depot Ogden, including fuel, solvents and toxic metals. The military has taken steps to contain and clean such underground sources of pollution.

Navy tools and machine parts contaminated with explosives are also buried near western Salt Lake County suburbs. The Navy says the explosives present no risk as long as they remain buried and relatively dry so they do not contaminate groundwater beneath the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant near Magna.

Chemical arms

Deseret Chemical Depot — formerly known as Tooele Army Depot's South Area in Rush Valley — was the long-time home to 40 percent of the nation's chemical arms stockpile. Originally the government stored a massive 13,616 tons of it in 1.1 million separate containers, rockets, bombs and artillery shells.

As of Oct. 15, the Army had destroyed 4,775 tons of chemical agent (in 584,231 containers) at a $1 billion incinerator at the Tooele County base, said John Pettebone, public affairs specialist at Deseret Chemical Depot.