BRACC CLEANUP RECOMMENDATIONS

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

BRAC COMMISSION ON CLEANUP POLICY

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, in its 
report to the President, did more than list bases for closure and 
realignment. It issued a number of recommendations to the 
Congress, the Executive Branch, and to Communities designed to 
assist recovery and conversion. 

Several of those recommendations deal directly with environmental 
cleanup. I have listed those below:

"To Congress:

1) The commission believes certain legislative changes to the 
statutory cleanup process could benefit the communities by returning 
property to productive reuse and save money in the long run. These 
changes were suggested initial by DoD, and in some instances, in 
conjunction with EPA:

a) Allow DoD to take into consideration the long-term anticipated 
land use when making cleanup decisions. According to DoD, this 
would facilitate the transfer of property and yield better coordinated 
cleanups and reuse plans.

b) Provide flexibility in the choice of remediation methods - 
permanent solutions may not make sense in all instances.

c) Provide EPA with discretionary authority - similar to that enjoyed 
by private sites - not to place closing military bases on the National 
Priority List (NPL) if, in EPA's judgment, sufficient progress is 
being made towards cleanup.

d) Clarify section 120(h) of CERCLA to allow long term lease of 
contaminated property at closing military bases. This would help to 
speed up the return of bases to productive reuse, and ensure DoD 
access to the property to perform the required remediation.

e) Amend CERFA to clarify that storage of hazardous material does 
not automatically prevent a parcel of land from being clean if the 
amount of material stored was either minimal of if there was no 
release. According to DoD, the current statutory language excludes 
many residential areas from being considered clean parcels because 
domestic hazardous materials, such as paint and home heating oil, 
were stored for more than a year."

"To the Executive Branch:

1) The Commission recommends DoD clean up the most 
commercially viable contaminated base areas first and the least 
desirable contaminated areas later, as long as the sites are stabilized 
and no public health threats are imminent.

...

6) The Commission recommends DoD and EPA identify factors that 
will encourage senior DoD environmental cleanup personnel to 
remain at closing bases throughout the cleanup process.."

Of these recommendations, I consider only items (a), (c), and (d) of 
the Congressional policies to be controversial."

Lenny Siegel