The nation's biggest polluter isn't a corporation. It's the Pentagon. Every year the Department of Defense churns out more hazardous waste than the top three chemical companies combined.

The military remains largely exempt from compliance with most federal and state environmental laws, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pentagon's partner in crime, is working to keep it that way.

Perchlorate has been leaking from literally hundreds of defense plants and military installations across the country. For the past five decades the federal government, defense contractors and the chemical industry have joined forces to block public health protections against perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been shown to effect children's growth and mental progress by disrupting the function of the thyroid gland which regulates brain development.

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