NPL LISTINGS?

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>

 By law, federal facilities, including Wisconsin's Badger Army
Ammunition Plant(BAAP) and Fort McCoy, are to be ranked for placement on
the NPL within 18 months of placement on the Docket. Both BAAP and Fort
McCoy were placed on the docket in 1988, and have not been ranked by the
USEPA and, we are quite confident, never will be ranked. Based on
conversations with USEPA personnel, Region V has placed a maximum of 3
facilities on the NPL since 1990 and claims they have been directed to
deal with those facilities "already on their plate". Given that premise,
USEPA Region V has, by this internal decision to indefinitely stall
ranking any further sites, precluded community access to, among other
resources, TAG monies, ATSDR health assessments, and in many cases --
equal access to cleanup monies. To qualify the last, I have only to
quote an aide from our own U.S. Senator's office who said (in response to
our query for additional cleanup funds): "Badger can't be that bad --
it's not even on the NPL." In this case, perception is clearly our
reality.
 So where do we go from here? I have challenged Region V to
consider how their decision, which they will publicly deny as they are
not about to admit they are purposefully in violation of Federal law, is
going to impact low-income communities and how they intend to comply with
Environmental Justice principles? After all, who needs access to
financial and other resources the most?
 Just as Region V is "working on" ranking Wisconsin's federal
facilities (some 8 years now), they are now "working on" a response to
our query re: EJ. Obviously, we're not holding our breath on that one.
 Any ideas on how to move this issue beyond the talking stage?
Laura Olah