Star Staff Writer
The community board that advises the Army on the cleanup of former Fort McClellan confronted Army officials with a list of complaints about the board’s role at its regular meeting Monday.
One after another, members of the Restoration Advisory Board chimed in with concerns about the board and its usefulness.
"It was a sad thing when I asked the board if anything we’ve done has been worthwhile," said Pete Conroy, director of the Environmental Policy and Information Center at Jacksonville State University. "Nobody could come up with anything."
Fort McClellan closed in 1999, and large parts of the land have been transferred to local authorities. Environmental issues there include old landfills, unexploded ordinance left from years of artillery training and groundwater contamination.
Restoration Advisory Board members said the Army takes a defensive posture when questioned. They also wondered why they are not involved in environmental decisions while they are still in progress and asked for drafts of reports and accompanying comments by state and federal environmental regulators.
Piles of documents have gone back and forth between the Army and regulators.
"We’ve got the fourth draft of the fifth version of the fifteenth iteration of response to comments," said Gary Harvey, the Army’s official in charge of the cleanup.
He and other officials expressed frustration with the board, saying they couldn’t tell members what questions to ask.
"Whatever you want, we’ll give it to you," said Harvey. "We’ll give you all the resources. You’ve got to use them. I’ll give it to you down and dirty, no caveat, no nothing."
In a related move, the board voted to meet quarterly instead of monthly, in hopes of using its time better.
"When all’s said and done, we want some property out here the community can use and benefit from," said Jim Miller, an advisory board member and general manager of Anniston Water Works and Sewer Board.
The advisory board also discussed the conflict between the Army and state environmental regulators over unexploded ordinance.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has questioned the data the Army’s contractors have been gathering on ordinance in the ground.
Several weeks ago, the Alabama Department of Transportation re-cleared a parcel of land known as the "flying J," part of the planned Eastern Bypass through McClellan.
The Army had examined the land and removed debris that lay buried up to a foot deep, but the Alabama Department of Environmental Management was concerned the work wasn’t reliable enough.
The Army said its position was vindicated when the state Transportation Department’s contractors found no ordinance the second time around.
But state environmental officials said the agency was still not satisfied with the methodology used, regardless of what was found on that particular piece of property.
The board also elected two new members, Robert Jackson and James Hall.