Environmental Protection

This report explores environmental issues arising from the testing of the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. GAO also discusses the environmental effects of shuttle launches on and near the Kennedy Space Center and follows up on how NASA implemented GAO's earlier recommendations (see GAO/NSIAD-91-146, Apr. 5, 1991).

GAO found that: (1) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used computer modelling to predict that ground-level exhaust pollutants from ASRM tests would be within acceptable air quality limits and would have insignificant environmental impacts; (2) federal and state regulators have concluded that the NASA computer modelling provided reasonable assurances that exhaust pollutant concentrations would be insignificant; (3) to verify that its computer modelling would accurately predict exhaust products, chemical composition, and particle sizes, NASA added upper-level air sampling to its ground level-sampling of current solid rocket motor tests; (4) NASA redesigned its ASRM test facilities to prevent a loss of existing wetlands; (5) NASA concluded that shuttle launches of up to ten per year would cause insignificant environmental damage at or near the Kennedy Space Center; (6) NASA has been improving its overall environmental management program; and (7) five NASA facilities may contain hazardous waste sites that NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency officials believe could be designated as Superfund sites.