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Friday, September 19, 2008

Pentagon Won't Clean up Its Messes

When it comes to the environment, the Department of Defense is the nation's biggest polluter and, apparently, the government's biggest bully.

The Pentagon continues to ignore the instructions from another arm of government, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to clean up toxic sites at military bases. DOD officials are also intimidating state environmental agencies to back off clean-up efforts and are threatening to withhold federal funding Congress intended to go to those states, according to The Washington Post.

Yesterday, Wayne Arny, a deputy undersecretary for defense, told a Senate panel that he was unaware of any threats to withhold funding, and that he would put a stop to it.

But at the same hearing, "He said that the military is committed to protecting public health and the environment and merely differs with the EPA over cleanup procedures," according to the Post. "He said the Pentagon was proceeding with its own cleanup."

To that, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) shot back, "I don't want the EPA making decisions on war strategy, and I don't want you making decisions on environmental cleanup, because you have an interest in the easiest way out."

Boxer is correct: DOD's impartiality and commitment to the environment cannot, and should not, be counted on. DOD is the nation's biggest polluter. EPA says the three most controversial clean-up sites (Maguire Air Force Base in New Jersey, Fort Meade in Maryland, and Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida) may present "an imminent and substantial threat" to public health and the environment.

Moreover, the Pentagon is in violation of federal law. Again, the Post reports:

Although the law gives final say to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson in cleanup disputes with other federal agencies, the Pentagon refuses to recognize that provision. Military officials have asked the Justice Department and the White House to intervene in the dispute.

In May, Arney wrote to OMB asking it to resolve the dispute between DOD and EPA. No public word yet on the views of the White House.