Lenny and CPEO Reuse subscribers,
I wish to air my
support for those California citizens who are making a stand against the
injustice being perpetrated across this country by our government joining forces
with big business to promote irresponsible redevelopment practices in regards to
the proper environmental cleanup of former military bases.
The Base Realignment
And Closure (BRAC) process, that long ago was put in place to provide former
host communities guidance in redevelopment strategy, and environmental
remediation in cleanup of military released toxins, has been irresponsibly
lessened. No longer are the protection of public health, and restoration of
natural resources top priorities in BRAC process.
Our Department of
Defense under the George W. Bush administration has concluded that
their funds are much better spent poured into an Iraqi civil war, brought
on in large part by a morally misguided invasion, than the just, but equally
expensive task of cleaning up the toxic legacy of military exercise on their own
shores.
The deferral of
CERCLA law, through "Early Transfer" Covenant Deferral Requests, and further
privatization of the BRAC, has here at the former South Weymouth(Ma) Naval Air
Station, at Hunter's Point, as well as closed bases across the country, proposes
that the public health of former host communities, is responsibly protected by
certain developers and their contractors, such as Lennar and CH2M
Hill, who are presented with the deferred cleanup as part of their
redevelopment.
How can the cleanup
of military contamination be construed as responsibly complete, if we are asked
to accept the word of a private developer, who's main objective, as with any big
business, would be to maximize profits?
As the citizens
around Hunter's Point, I have a serious concern with airborne contamination
being released via the destruction and crushing of military buildings and
runways in my neighborhood. It is my contention that the public health is in
some jeopardy by airborne asbestos and the distinct possibility that metal-laced
flyash was used as a component of runway construction.
The Navy, and
long-involved regulators( federal EPA, state DEP) have been removed from this
"solid waste" process, and we citizens are asked to trust Lennar, CH2M Hill, and
a special solid waste office of the state, who appears less than forthcoming
with any publicly released testing data. All we know thus far is the first ten
feet of the North-South Runway has been crushed up, without citizens having
any knowledge of toxin testing or dust control measures.
An editorial
by James Carroll of the Boston Globe appeared in today's newspaper.
His
incites ring so true:
"The simplest
truth is that the economic system that so benefits you is steadily eroding
democracy by transferring the power to shape the future, both within states and
among them by ever smaller elites. At the same time, wealth multiplies and
concentrates itself, while impoverishing more and more human beings."
The immoral
privatization of BRAC and questionable practices of big businesses like Lenner,
I clearly see as impoverishing the public health of those of us living in
proximity to these highly polluted former military bases.
Our
further impoverishment, our very rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
of Happiness, are regarded as secondary concerns to our government's
financially pushed politics.
How the
government is allowing the Department of Defense to shirk their moral
responsibilities to the environmental health of their former host communities is
astounding.
The moral
degradation of our leadership in the world is the greatest of tragedies.
One political
scandal after the next haunts America.
The latest
haunts me the most.
The federal Department of Justice fires a number of attorneys, many say for
strictly political reasons.
President
Bush and Attorney General Gonzalez cite that as preposterous, reiterating that
the firings were strictly performance related.
Makes me
wonder...
I've
always wondered how Lennar, the locally appointed Redevelopment
Board(SSTTDC),and informed and engaged politicians have been able to
completely ignore scores of my inquiries into well-founded public health
concerns on and around the former air station.
You
wonder what influence a development company could politically wield?
It's true the
Florida-based developer was said to be instrumental in luring
pharmaceutical big business to Govenor Jeb Bush's state.
Lennar did
next expand to Texas.
I haven't
heard whether G.W.Bush prior to his presidential run, received any like
assistance, but it makes you wonder.
Time and
again, I hear Lennar linked to former military base redevelopments.
Time and
again, I hear about lawsuits, but never hear about resolutions.
Getting back
to the fired U.S. attorneys,
One in
particular caught my attention.
U.S. Attorney
Carol Lam was fired for stated job incompetence.
Carol Lam was
instrumental in making the well-publicized case against Randall "Duke"
Cunningham.
In 2006, Atty.
Lam began investigating a case against Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis. Her
dismissal shelves that case.
It's been
reported that Congressman Lewis is under investigation for receiving $110,000
from a powerful Hedge Fund, Cerberus Capital Management, LP, soon before, as
sitting Head of the Congressional Defense Appropriation Sub-Committee, he
restored full funding for a contract previously awarded to MCI, that had been
reduced due to cited mismanagement and cost overruns.
MCI, is owned
by Cerberus Capital Management, thus making the $110,000 received by Congressman
Lewis, highly questionable.
The chairman
of the board of Cerberus Capital Management is John W. Snow ( George W.Bush's
2nd Secretary of the Treasury.
Why this
concerns me here and now, because Cerberus Capital Management also owns a
majority of shares in Riley Property Holdings which just bought LNR Property
Corp ( Lennar Partners parent company.
I'm sure
enough lawyers were involved here to make all these business dealings
legal in every way, but I question the morality of it all.
Does the
thickness of the Political/Financial web, explain why on a local level
environmental justice is impossible?
Do the
politically empowered elite doom Justice for All?
God
guide us,
David Wilmot, Abington, Ma.