UXO SOUVENIORS

[CGumbi@aol.com]

 UXO Hazard Protection Responsibility
 An Ethical Question - A Moral Obligation

Mr. Vernon J. Brechin has expressed quite well, the fundamental issue with
regard to the cleanup of federal lands contaminated with Unexploded Ordnance
(UXO). 

The DOD's "Range Rule" is little more than the military attempting to
position them selves in such a fashion, so as to be "self-regulating" in
regard to regulatory compliance with the environmental, health, and safety
laws of the United States and the States. 
(the military wants "weasel room" in the Federal Facilities Compliance Act,
October 1992) 

Mr. Brechin has stated the fundamental moral and ethical issues of the
failing cleanup of US taxpayers' lands. The US-EPA, Department of Defense,
and Department of the Interior refuse to acknowledge the ethical and moral
issues that mandate more than mediocre cleanups, and requires their
individual and collective accountability to the public whom they serve.

One does not have to go very far to find a cleanup failure in progress. The
Army's Fort Ord cleanup is a perfect example of how NOT to proceed with a
military base cleanup. The public has, for all intents and purposes, been
completely cut out of the cleanup process, in defiance of EPA-DOD Guidance,
ARMY Guidance and Command Directives. 

I applaud Mr. Brechin's astute observations and precise statement of this
complex failure of the federal government in dealing with the core issues
regarding the UXO cleanup problem as federal lands now being transferred to
public use.

Regards,
Curt Gandy
Fort Ord Toxics Project
ordtoxics@aol.com
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