Chesapeake Bay marsh to be cleared of munitions

POQUOSON, Va. -- It's been about 50 years since the U.S. military stopped using Plum Tree Island for target practice with bombs and rockets, but there's still unfinished business.

Between 2 percent and 5 percent of the ordnance used on the Chesapeake Bay peninsula between 1917 and 1959 probably didn't explode, and now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to clear the marshy landscape.

George Follett, who will manage the cleanup, says there will probably be some loud bangs as unexploded bombs are detonated, but nothing to worry about.

In 1958, three teenagers were seriously injured when a bomb half-buried in the sand exploded.

Work is to begin in mid-January and continue into April, then resume in 2010.

-- The Associated Press