[CPEO-IRF] Brooks AFB (TX) not very "dirty"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Base closure not always dirty job 

Jerry Needham and Anton Caputo
San Antonio Express-News (TX)
May 22, 2005

If there's any good news to be had from the misfortune of Brooks
City-Base landing on the Pentagon's base closure list, it's that the
real estate it would leave isn't all that polluted - at least compared
with its neighbor down the street. 

Brooks never had heavy industrial operations, and its flight operations
ended in 1960. Only one site at the 1,310-acre base had significant
pollution, and cleanup has been under way for nine years. It's expected
to take another five. 

By comparison, the cost of cleaning up KellyUSA, the former Air Force
base that closed its gates in 2001, has soared to $310.4 million. It's
expected to top $465 million by the time cleanup is complete in 2024. 

As communities across the country mourn or celebrate the news from last
week's release of the BRAC list, the implication of what that news will
mean to the air, soil and water probably hasn't been at the forefront of
their minds. 

The Defense Department included in its list some estimates of how base
closures and realignments would affect the environment ? from added air
pollution from armored vehicle exhaust to potential groundwater
contamination. But some experts have dismissed those estimates as
off-the-cuff guesses. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA052205.1A.brac_enviro.299e89542.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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