March 31, 2003

Re: Communities affected by military contamination oppose sweeping new exemptions for DOD

Dear Senator or Representative:

As communities affected by military contamination and pollution, we urge you to oppose any provisions in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2004 that would exempt the Department of Defense (DOD) from landmark public health and environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund (CERCLA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. No federal agency should be above the law ñ especially the laws that protect water, air, and the environment in and around military facilities and the health of the people who live nearby. Additional exemptions are not necessary to maintain military readiness: current laws and the Armed Forces Code already contain provisions to exempt military activities in the interest of national security, and regulatory agencies already provide great latitude to the DOD to protect military training. DODís proposed sweeping new exemptions would undermine the role of states that administer pollution control laws, and local communities that are directly impacted by DOD operations.

Exempting military operations and lands from fundamental public health and environmental laws will make our communities second class citizens, stripping us of protections provided at private sector facilities. Across the board exemptions from federal laws are not necessary to maintain military readiness. Existing law already contains provisions providing for case-by-case waivers in the interest of national security, and the United States Code specifically empowers theÝPresident to resolve any conflicts between the DOD and other executive agencies that effect training or readiness. Local, cooperative efforts including military staff, states, municipalities, environmental organizations, and affected communities have shown that innovative solutions based on local needs and conditions can accommodate military training while protecting public health and the environment.

As it did last year, the Department of Defense has again proposed sweeping and controversial exemptions from public health and environmental laws through a closed process that excluded our communities and representatives of the states in which we live. DOD once again seeks to avoid consideration of its proposals in the Senate and House committees that hold jurisdiction over the laws from which the military seeks exemption, by inserting the language into the National Defense Authorization Act. Controversial and unprecedented across the board exemptions from foundational laws, such as those proposed by DOD, should be fully debated in the committees of jurisdiction in a process including all stakeholders.

Military contamination and pollution threaten the health of our communities and the environment on which we depend for life. Department of Defense activity has produced over 27,000 toxic hot spots on 8,500 military properties. Military munitions in particular represent a severe and pervasive threat to our communities. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) exists on over 2,000 sites in the U.S. comprising up to 25 million acres, posing an immediate threat to public health and leaching toxic chemical contaminants into the environment. According to the DOD itself, 16 million acres of land already transferred to other agencies or the public may be contaminated with UXO and toxic munitions constituents. The Army alone has as many as 2,000 sites contaminated by explosives.

Our communities have struggled to protect our health and environment, not only from toxic munitions contamination but also from the DODís unwillingness to aggressively address the problems. DODís record speaks for itself.

Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, MA ñ Decades of unregulated munitions use contaminated the sole source of drinking water for half a million people, up to 75 billion gallons of water. The military claimed that unexploded ordnance would never contaminate the environment. The extent of contamination at MMR was only discovered after EPA forced the military to investigate. Burning of excess artillery propellant ñ which could be exempted from regulation under DODís proposal ñ has been linked to increased lung cancer in people living nearby.
Jefferson Proving Ground, Madison, IN ñ Parts of the former Jefferson Proving Ground are contaminated with up to 150,000 pounds of toxic depleted uranium remaining from Army testing of DU munitions. The Army has sought to walk away from this contamination without performing any cleanup, and only recently abandoned its proposal to cease any ongoing environmental monitoring at the site. Under DODís proposed exemptions, depleted uranium shells and the contamination they cause would be largely exempt from federal hazardous waste and toxic cleanup laws.
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD ñ Wells that supply drinking water for communities surrounding the Proving Ground are contaminated with the toxic munitions constituent perchlorate. Military officials have opposed community requests for action to remove the contamination from drinking water supplies. DOD could be exempted from its liability to clean up perchlorate contamination of groundwater and drinking water at sites around the country under its exemption proposals.
Makua Military Reservation, Oíahu, HI ñ The Makua Valley is home to over 40 endangered species, including one found nowhere else on earth. Training and munitions disposal operations have caused fires that damaged these species; destroyed homes, the local church, and Indigenous Hawaiíian temples; and contaminated soil and groundwater. The Army refused for years to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement considering the effects of its training on the environment, species, and Indigenous culture in the valley. Federal and state agency oversight of munitions contamination and protection of critical habitat for endangered species could be blocked if DODís proposals are enacted.

The ability of states and EPA to protect public health and the environment at these sites and hundreds of others would be dramatically limited if DODís proposed exemptions are enacted.

The language proposed by the Defense Department would:

Strip EPA and states of virtually any authority to protect public health and the environment from toxic contamination caused by military munitions under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). All military munitions ñ including chemical and depleted uranium weapons ñ and the contamination they cause would apparently be exempted from RCRA. DODís language would block the use of RCRA to require investigation and cleanup of toxic munitions contamination both on and off military ranges, even in the face of an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health.
Exempt toxic munitions contamination of groundwater, air, and soil at ìoperationalî military ranges (a vague term which includes dozens of ranges that have been inactive for years or decades) from oversight and regulation under CERCLA (Superfund), until the contamination migrates off-range into surrounding communities. States and EPA would be blocked from virtually any oversight of munitions contamination at hundreds of contaminated DOD sites not listed on the National Priority List.
Shift the burden for maintaining clean air to other agencies, private industry, small businesses, and the public. DOD seeks to become exempt from compliance with the Clean Air Actís public health air quality standards for a broad range of activities. DODís proposal actually defines dirty air to be clean air, by allowing EPA to approve areas that do not meet the CAA standards as having attained them, if the reason for the nonattainment is military air pollution.
Block any designation of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act on many lands owned or controlled by the military. DODís proposal would prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service from designating critical habitat on any DOD lands if an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan has been developed pursuant to the Sikes Act that ìaddresses special management consideration or protection.î The Fish and Wildlife Service has specifically found that INRMPs are not adequate to protect endangered species.
Allow the DOD to harm marine mammals without review by changing the Marine Mammal Protection Actís definition of ìharassmentî to a vague and subjective definition based on DODís own assessment of its activities. DODís proposal would allow a range of military activities that disrupt and harm marine mammals, eliminate the requirement that any killing or harming of marine mammals be limited to ìsmall numbers,î and create broad exemptions allowing the military to entirely bypass the lawís review process.

Our communities struggle every day to hold DOD accountable for its actions that endanger our health and our environment. Our families and our water, land, and air will bear the cost of the toxic contamination and destruction of natural resources that will result if DODís proposals become law. Existing laws already allow DOD to request waivers on a case by case basis. Sweeping new exemptions from landmark public health and environmental laws will only undermine the strength of our democracy and the health of our communities. We urge you to oppose any language that grants DOD new broad exemptions from public health and environmental laws, and ensure that all of us must live under the same laws.

Sincerely,

Tara Thornton
Executive Director
Military Toxics Project

Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizens Coalition
Aberdeen, MD

Aila Ohana
Oíahu, HI

Alabama Environmental Council
Birmingham, AL

Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Anchorage, AK

Alaska Public Interest Research Group
Anchorage, AK

Amnesty International University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK

AuSable Manistee Action Council
Grayling, MI

Butte Environmental Council
Chico, CA

Canoochee Riverkeeper
Claxton, GA

Chemical Weapons Working Group
Berea, KY

Citizen Action New Mexico
Sandia Park, NM

Citizens for a Cleaner Lake Michigan
Highland Park, IL
Citizens for Clean Air and Water in Pueblo/ Southern Colorado
Pueblo, CO

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Merrimac, WI

Citizens for Smart Choices
Hartsville, TN

Citizens Research and Environmental Watch
Concord, MA

Coast Action Group
Point Arena, CA

Columbia Riverkeeper
Hood River, OR

Committee for Environmental Justice Action
San Antonio, TX

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
Vieques, PR

Common Ground
Richmond, KY

Cook Inlet Keeper
Homer, AK

Coosa River Basin Initiative
Rome, GA

Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee
Memphis, TN
Donít Waste Connecticut
New Haven, CT

Environmental Health Coalition
San Diego, CA

Environmental Justice Action Group
Tucson, NM

Fellowship of Reconciliation
Nyack, NY

Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solutions
El Cerrito, CA

GASP
Hermiston, OR

GRACE Public Fund
New York, NY

Grassroots Action for Peace
Concord, MA

Heal the Bay
Santa Monica, CA

Involved Neighbors Seeking Information, Safety and Truth
Norco, CA

Kentucky Environmental Foundation
Berea, KY

Life 2000
Greenfield, CA

Life of the Land
Honolulu, HI

Malama Makua
WaiíAnae, HI

Maryland United for Peace and Justice
Bowie, MD

Monterey Bay Toxics Project
Monterey, CA

New Jersey Military Toxics Project
Springfield, NJ

New Mexico Alliance
Chimayo, NM

Non-Stockpile Chemical Weapons Citizen Coalition
Berea, KY

No Nukes North
Fairbanks, AK

Nukewatch
Luck, WI

Oregon Toxics Alliance
Eugene, OR

Oregon Wildlife Federation
Portland, OR

Patriots for Peace
Shalimar, FL

Peace Resource Center of San Diego
San Diego, CA

Pennsylvania Environmental Network
Fombell, PA

Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security
McDermott, OH

Progressive Foundation
Luck, WI

Residents Against Munitions
Milford, CA

Right to Know Committee
Philadelphia, PA

San Diego Audubon Society
San Diego, CA

San Diego Baykeeper
San Diego, CA

Save Our Air Resources
Salinas, CA

Save the Valley
Madison, IN

Serving Alabamaís Future Environment
Anniston, AL

Sierra Club, San Diego Chapter
San Diego, CA

Southwest Workers Union
San Antonio, TX

Student Environmental Action Coalition
Philadelphia, PA

Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter
San Diego, CA

Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance
Santa Fe, NM

Waste Action Project
Seattle, WA

WaterKeepers Northern California
San Francisco, CA

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads
Missoula, MT

Womenís Action for New Directions
Little Rock, AR

Womenís International League for Peace and Freedom, Tucson Branch
Tucson, AZ

Youth Terminating Pollution
Memphis, TN

Grassroots National
Board of Directors

Wilbur Slockish
Board Chair
Columbia River Education Economic Development,
Oregon

Gilbert Sanchez Treasurer
Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance, New Mexico

Doris Bradshaw
Secretary
Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee

Sparky Rodrigues
Personnel Committee Chair
Malama Makua, Hawaii

Brainard Bivens
Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal, Arkansas

Marquita Bradshaw
Youth Terminating Pollution, Tennessee

Tina Daly
Pennsylvania Environmental Network

Carol Dwyer
Grassroots Actions for Peace, Massachusetts

Genaro Lopez
Southwest Workersí Union, Texas

Nilda Medina
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, Puerto Rico

Nohelia Ramos Environmental Health Coalition, California