From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org> |
Date: | Wed, 03 Jul 1996 11:53:07 -0700 (PDT) |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | Re: UXO PLANNING |
From: SFSU CAREER/PRO <lsiegel@igc.org> DOD ORGANIZES TO CONFRONT UXO CHALLENGE The Defense Department has recently approved two organizational structures to confront the twin challenges of unexploded ordnance (UXO) remediation and wide-area de-mining. These efforts appear to be the result of internal pressure from within the military, last year's GAO report calling for increased coordination, and the controversy surrounding the EPA Munitions Rule and DOD Range Rule. I. The Department is forming a high-level UXO Executive Committee, headed by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition & Technology) or his designee. Its Charter/Plan, though couched in bureaucratic language, represents a serious effort to elevate UXO clearance issues and provide coordination within the Department of Defense. Its objective is "to have an effective, fully-coordinated, requirements-driven research and development program for countermine, de-mining, site remediation, range clearance, and explosive ordnance disposal." Participation will be broad-based within the Pentagon. Members will include the Director, Strategic and Tactical Systems; the Service Acquisition Executives; representation from the Joint Staff's Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment Directorate; the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Environmental Security; Director, Test Systems Engineering and Evaluation; Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict); and the Director of Defense Research and Engineering; among others. The Executive Committee will provide policy guidance, ensure liaison with other federal agencies, and oversee an inter-service steering group and three subgroups in the development of the Defense-wise UXO Clearance Plan. The first subgroup, Requirements Coordinating, "will provide input to the UXO clearance plan from the UXO user communities as to current requirements and anticipated program initiatives" in each of five areas: combat countermine activities, humanitarian de-mining, UXO site remediation, active range UXO clearance, and UXO disposal. A second subgroup will focus on detection technology, while the third will coordinate activities pertaining to removal, render safe, breaching, and related technologies. II. The Department is creating a Task Force to conduct a two-phase study of U.S. landmine and UXO related programs. Led by the Director, Strategic and Tactical Systems, the Task Force will be co-sponsored by the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security). The first phase, to be completed by December 13, 1996, will examine U.S. landmine, landmine detection, and demining efforts and alternatives to anti-personnel landmines on a global basis. While the Task Force will study ways to make de-mining cheaper, safer, or faster, it will also look at the strategic role of landmines. The second phase, to be completed by April 25, 1997, will examine UXO remediation, active range UXO clearance, and explosive ordnance disposal efforts, including the relationship of those objectives to landmine clearance. It will not only study the remediation of UXO from past activities, but it will consider technologies to prevent the creation of UXO - pollution prevention for munitions. These plans are a major step forward, and they could lead to a comprehensive strategy, backed by real dollars, to develop new ways of dealing with the millions of acres around the world littered with deadly or maiming anti-personnel mines and the millions of domestic acres contaminated with UXO. The DOD plans provide for liaison with other federal agencies, but as written they make no specific provision for state and community participation in development of the plans. Such participation could improve the resulting plan and studies, and equally important, build support for what could be a costly program. Lenny Siegel | |
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