Pentagon Blocking Clean-up of Toxic Waste

[Guest guest]

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 13:08:06 GMT

" BushGreenwatch " <info

 

Pentagon Blocking Clean-up of Toxic Waste

 

 

 

BushGreenwatch

October 22, 2004 | Back Issues

 

Pentagon Blocking Clean-up of Toxic Waste

 

More than 125 military bases around the country are listed for

priority cleanup under the federal Superfund program, the result of

decades of careless fouling of soil and water with toxic chemicals.

 

Some 29 million Americans live within 10 miles of the contaminated

bases. But, the Pentagon has stalled cleanup at scores of bases, used

political clout to brush aside new regulations, and challenged the

authority of state and federal regulators to force the military to

obey existing environmental laws, according to an in-depth

investigative story published by USA Today on October 14.

 

" All the numbers are consistent with an overall trend, " said Sylvia

Lowrance, a recently retired 20-year EPA veteran who was a top

enforcement official there. " In the last two decades, you've had a

general buildup of EPA's authority to ... take enforcement action

against the Defense Department. That direction has changed in this

administration. "

 

At Lowry Air Force Base near Denver, closed in 1994 and sold to

developers for $8 million, workers have already hauled away tons of

soil contaminated with asbestos. But Air Force officials have refused

to pay for the $15 million cleanup, saying the state of Colorado

hasn't proved that the risks were high enough to warrant removal of

the toxic soil.

 

" You have citizens here who want to preserve property values, who want

to preserve the safety of their families and see this community

developed as it was promised, " said resident Amy Ford, whose baby

daughter was just learning to crawl when men in hazmat suits came to

tear out her yard. " The Air Force is refusing to take responsibility. "

 

Four years ago, candidate George Bush stated that the Pentagon must

" comply with environmental laws by which all of us must live. " But

today, the White House has repeatedly sided with the Pentagon in

disputes with EPA over toxic cleanup.

 

For example, the Pentagon is resisting EPA efforts to set new

pollution limits on two contaminants, perchlorate, a munitions

ingredient, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent. After military

officials complained to the White House that EPA studies were

exaggerating the dangers of the chemicals, EPA decided to wait for

years of additional study before taking action.

 

Within the administration, " it's no secret that the EPA is running

into this wall with the Pentagon, " says Linda Fisher, who served two

years as EPA second-in- command under Bush before leaving last year.

" Is the Department of Defense taking [regulatory disputes] to the

White House more often? Absolutely. "

 

State environmental regulators are feeling resistance from the

Pentagon too, according to USA Today. In Colorado, California, Ohio

and Minnesota, the Pentagon is fighting state efforts to restrict the

future use of contaminated military property. And in California,

Florida, Hawaii and Alaska, the military has challenged the authority

of state officials to fine the Pentagon for pollution problems.

 

Meanwhile, under the current regime at EPA, inspections of military

bases are down. The number of fines, cleanup orders and other EPA

enforcement actions against military facilities have dropped 25%, and

the size of the fines issued has dropped 64 percent.

 

According to the USA Today article, " Health and environmental

officials say the military's cleanup proposals at many polluted sites

don't do enough to reduce health risks. When that sort of impasse

occurs on privately owned land, regulators often use their authority

to simply order a cleanup on their terms. But the military is fighting

for special treatment -- and getting it. "

 

###

 

SOURCES:

USA Today, Oct. 14, 2004.