MUNITIONS RULE DEBATE

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

MUNITIONS RULE DEBATE CONTINUES

In 1992, when Congress was considering the Federal Facilities 
Compliance Act, the Department of Defense lobbied hard to exempt 
munitions from state and federal regulation. Instead, Congress 
inserted language directing EPA to develop a regulation 
determining when munitions become hazardous waste. This 
determination, when completed, will not only affect the treatment, 
storage, and disposal of waste munitions, but because other laws 
refer to terms in the hazardous waste legislation, it is likely to affect 
how and when the military remediates munitions impact ranges.

EPA has not met Congressional deadlines for proposing the 
munitions rule, but it is expected to publish a version later this year. 
EPA has been consulting with the Defense Department, state 
regulatory agencies, and - with periodic hesitancy - community 
groups on the substance of the regulation.

When the proposed rule is published, it will probably unleash a 
major battle pitting state regulators and community groups against 
the military environmental bureaucracy, with EPA's official 
position probably somewhere in the middle. That is, interests that 
are allied in support of adequate cleanup funding are on different 
sides of the munitions issue

The following is a succinct statement of the Defense Department's 
official policy, excerpted from a letter sent by Sherri Wasserman 
Goodman (Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental 
Security) to EPA Assistant Administrator Elliot Laws. It was 
printed in the Army Environmental Center's publication, 
ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE (April, 1995).

"The Department and military services have in place stringent 
explosives safety and security directives that provide for protection 
of human health and the environment, as intended by the Resource 
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). We believe that any 
additional RCRA requirements should provide substantial 
additional protection, without adding cost or potentially increasing 
the safety risk due to additional munitions handling. Our greatest 
concern remains that this rule may hinder the Department's ability 
to respond to threats, be they to national security as in the case of 
war, or to public safety, as in the case of explosive ordnance 
disposal units supporting military and civilian authorities faced with 
emergencies involving explosives.

"In essence, the Department's position on each issue is:

"Military munitions should be managed as RCRA-regulated waste 
upon certification for destruction at a treatment/disposal facility.

"Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB) and 
service-specific storage standards should be accepted as adequately 
protective of human health and the environment.

"The Department already complies with the Department of 
Transportation and its own standards for transportation of 
hazardous materials and explosives; thus additional RCRA 
regulation is duplicative.

"Emergency response actions are first and foremost a safety matter, 
rather than waste management, and should be exempted from 
RCRA regulation.

"With regard to burning of unused propellant bags during the course 
of legitimate training, EPA should continue to recognize that use of 
a manufactured product for an intended purpose is exempt from 
RCRA.

"Munitions, including unexploded ordnance, are deposited on a 
range incident to their normal and expected use as a product. 
Therefore, these munitions should not be considered wastes under 
RCRA."

I don't want to discuss all of these issues in depth now, but I want to 
make three points in response:

1) No one is suggestion that emergency response teams be forced to 
bury themselves in paperwork before they deal with emergencies.

2) Exempting training from regulation, when the training is in the 
"disposal" of a hazardous waste, could lead to continuing 
environmental degradation. A large number of military bases have 
serious contamination at sites where the military burned hazardous 
materials or wastes and called it firefighter training.

3) Unexploded munitions can no longer be used for their intended 
purpose once they have come to rest in the ground. They do, 
however, pose serious threats to human health and the environment, 
and the military, despite its competence at protecting its own 
people, has not demonstrated the capacity and will to protect the 
public and environment, except when and where it is subject to 
external regulation.

Lenny Siegel