Wall Street Journal
April 24, 2002

Pentagon Is Seeking Exemptions To List Of Environmental Laws

by John J. Fialka
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is asking Congress for exemptions to some of the
nation's environmental laws, asserting that they are needed to improve
military readiness and to make the training at military bases and bombing
ranges more realistic.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Department of Defense said the
legislative request has "great significance" for military capabilities and
said the resulting changes would have either "neutral" or "strongly
positive" effects on the environment.

Officials of state agencies, which enforce many federal environmental laws,
and environmental groups opposed the exemptions, which the House Armed
Services Committee may take up Thursday. "The federal government should act
as an example to private industry. It should have to comply with the same
laws that everybody else does," said Sandra Schubert, a lawyer for
Earthjustice, an environmental group based here.

Ken Salazar, attorney general of Colorado and head of a national committee
of state attorneys general, complained in a letter to the House committee
that the exemptions could have "adverse impacts on human health and the
environment." Currently, the Defense Department, he said, has a poorer
record complying with the Clean Water Act than other federal agencies or
private industry.

According to the Pentagon's statement, the Endangered Species Act and
pending lawsuits brought under it by environmental groups to protect birds
and animals could restrict training on substantial portions of the bases it
uses for training operations, including 65% of Camp Pendleton, a Marine Base
near San Diego, and 72% of Fort Lewis, an Army base on the coast of
Washington state.

The Pentagon wants more flexibility under the Clean Air Act because new
aircraft engines produce nitrogen oxides, a smog-causing pollutant.
Restrictions about to be phased in, it stated, "could be a significant
obstacle" to basing military jets in "any Southern California location."
James Van Ness, an associate general counsel for the Defense Department,
said: "This goes to whether or not the young men and women we put in harms
way are properly trained."

The measure also seeks relief from the strictures of the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act. A recent federal-court decision that halts bombing exercises on
Farallon de Medinilla, an island in the Western Pacific, where birds were
being killed, he said, could affect other ranges where live firing and
bombing is used for training. "That would be a very unfortunate thing," he
said.

While the legislation is being considered as part of this year's budget
request by the House Armed Services Committee, it has provoked
jurisdictional complaints because the environmental laws involved are
overseen by at least two other committees. "DOD should concentrate on
complying with the law and cleaning up the environment instead of seeking
special preference to continue as the nation's greatest polluter," said Rep.
John Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and
Commerce Committee.

The Pentagon wants hazardous waste to be redefined under state and federal
Superfund laws to exclude the need to clean up munitions as long as they are
on operational military bases. The exemption wouldn't apply to previously
used bases.