The History of the US Department of Defense Programs for the Testing, Evaluation, and Storage of Tactical Herbicides -format
Reformulation of Herbicide Orange for Domestic for Foreign Use, Bound-Brook, New Jersey
Page 63
Location: Site 25
Date → April 1972 – January 1973
Activity Description:
One method selected for the potential disposal of the
surplus 2.3 million gallons of Herbicide Orange remaining after the Vietnam War was the
option of donating or selling the herbicide to private industry, or to another United States
Government Agency. For example, a significant portion of the total land area of the
United States was used for pasture and grazing purposes, and weeds and brush presented
a major problem on these lands. Various species of undesirable brush and trees and
numerous noxious (foreign) weeds dominated some 320 million acres of US rangeland
and pastures, and the application of phenoxy herbicides, such as found in Herbicide
Orange, could be an economical method of increasing the quality and grazing capacity of
these lands. Moreover, in April 1972 representatives from the Blue Spruce Company,
Bound-Brook, New Jersey and from the International Research Institute, a Rockefeller
Foundation affiliate, contacted the Air Force Logistics Command proposing to
reformulate Herbicide Orange and sell or donate it to a number of South American
Governments, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Surinam. The basic plan was
to have the Air Force donate the herbicide for use to improve rangelands in the upper
Amazon Basins of South America. The Herbicide Orange would be reformulated
(diluted) and repackaged for ground application under controlled conditions. AFLC
advised the Blue Spruce Company that “it had no objection, but recommended that the
proposed governments that would be involved would employ Blue Spruce Company to
reformulate and repackage the Herbicide Orange.” From May 1972 through January
1973, 121 drums (6,655) gallons of Herbicide Orange were shipped to the Blue Spruce
Company.
Assessment:
As a “Tactical Herbicide”, Herbicide Orange was not an EPA (US
Environmental Protection Agency) registered pesticide, and as such could not be
domestically used or sold. However, the 2.3 million gallons of surplus represented a
resource of considerable monetary value. Beginning in May 1972 the Blue Spruce
Company experimented on reformulating and diluting the Herbicide Orange.
Simultaneously, the Company (with the assistance of the International Research Institute)
initiated discussions with the Brazilian Government and with the US EPA. After more
than one year negotiating with US and South American Government Agencies, letters of
support for the proposal were not forthcoming. Accordingly, after a great deal of
discussion, the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board’s Ad Hoc Committee
on the Disposal of Herbicide Orange rejected this alternative for the following reasons:
“Once sold or donated, the United States could not assure that the herbicide would be
handled with the proper technical and environmental controls. In addition, the
widespread publicity on the use of the herbicide in Southeast Asia had created an “antipeople” image for the material that would probably result in adverse public opinion and
political reactions in the event the herbicide was sold to another country. In view of
these considerations, the Board felt that the herbicide’s sale or donation to a foreign
country would be against the best interests of the United States.”
No record could be found of how the Blue Spruce Company disposed of the reformulated
herbicide. The use of 2,4,5-T herbicide was not formally suspended until 1978.
Sources: Department of the Air Force (1974): Final Environmental Statement on the
Disposition of Orange Herbicide by Incineration. November 1974, Department of the Air
Force, Washington, DC, Unclassified, available for public distribution
Air Force Logistics Command (1976): Historical Records – Project on the Disposition of
Herbicide Orange.
Office of History, Air Force Logistics Command Archives, WrightPatterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Unclassified