BADGER MILESTONES

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

BADGER PLANT TO MISS MILESTONES

The Badger Army Ammunition Plant, in south central Wisconsin, should be 
a good place to test the recommendations of the Federal Facilities 
Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee (FFERDC). The Army cleanup 
program there is falling behind schedule. The Sauk Prairie Eagle 
(February 6, 1997) quotes David Fordham, the Commander's 
Representative: "By law we cannot commit funds we don't actually have, 
even if they are present in the budget. So, the work can't move faster 
than we actually receive the funds.... There's no question that we are 
not in compliance with the timeline for the clean-up which was in the 
plan approved by the state in June 1995. The things we're working on 
are in the approved plan, but we are not getting them done consistently."

Mike Netzer, the state regulator for the site, said that at least eight 
conditions from the 1995 plan have not been met: "Groundwater studies 
in the northeast area of the plant are way overdue. There are serious 
problems with the schedule. Virtually none of the schedules within the 
plant have been complied with."

Meanwhile, the Eagle reports, community activists report difficulties 
getting Army documents when they are submitted to regulatory agencies. 
Laura Olah, a member of the Restoration Advisory Board, told the Eagle: 
"The documents that have been submitted in the past have not been made 
available to the public until it's too late to respond to what's in them."

The Eagle summarized the Army response: "Fordham responded to Olah's 
proposal by saying that the plant has complied with disclosure 
requirements for final documents." The standard for document 
availability, as developed by FFERDC, applies to draft documents as well.

Lenny Siegel