CALIFORNIA DSMOA

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

From: Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>

CALIFORNIA DSMOA
On March 13, James Strock, California's Secretary for Environmental 
Protection, sent a letter to Pentagon Environmental Security chief 
Sherri Wasserman Goodman summarizing the benefits of the embattled 
Defense State Memorandum of Agreement (DSMOA) program. Strock noted 
that California is currently overseeing the cleanup of 32 Base 
Realignment and Closure bases, 82 active bases, 36 formerly owned or 
used defense sites, and seven voluntary base closures.
Strock has designated Cal-EPA's Department of Toxic Substances Control 
as the lead agency for cleanup oversight, and "it is coordinating the 
activities of over 20 state and local boards and departments with 
independent legal authority over cleanup activities conducted at 
California military installations." He pointed out: "Without the 
coordination afforded by the DSMOA grant, this system would revert to 
what existed several years ago with each independent department, air 
district or other agency having to rely on its own authority to oversee 
work and recover costs through fees and cost recovery or enforcement.
In an accompanying fact sheet, dated March 6, 1996, Cal-EPA asserts 
that the Defense Department has saved an estimated $450 million in 
cleanup related costs in California as a result of the DSMOA program, a 
"cost avoidance versus DSMOA grant expenditure ratio of 8 to 1."