Tad McCall/Amherst Conference

["Richard Hugus" <rhugus@cape.com>]

 According to a front page article in the June 4 Cape Cod Times, Tad
McCall, representing the Air Force, refuses to pay for damages to Upper
Cape Cod's natural resopurces caused by the Massachusetts Military
Reservation. McCall claims that before the Air Force will agree to pay, the
state of Massachusetts must also pay its share, since state troops trained
at the base. The state claims that the base has been run according to
federal military guidelines and that it is the Pentagon's responsibility.
McCall doesn't agree and isn't negotiating.

 As an activist who's been working on the cleanup of the Massachusetts
Military Reservation for many years, my experince with Tad McCall has not
been good. Last year after yet another public water supply well in
Falmouth, MA was closed due to a groundwater plume from the MMR, McCall set
up a deal with Falmouth Selectman Virginia Valiela instituting wellhead
treatment for the well--a choice that we had vocally opposed on principle
for years, seeing wellhead treatment as the military's means of avoiding
plume containmemnt and remediation--a cheap way out. There was absolutely
no public process in the McCall/Valiela decision. The deal was cut in
private with a local official known for making deals with the military
behind closed doors. The public was not involved.

 The Pentagon has hired McCall to carry out its reprehensible agenda of
giving communities affected by polluted bases as little as it possibly can,
and McCall has the uncanny ability to act like a nice guy while he is doing
it.

 The Massachusetts Military Reservation will also be featured as a case
study at the conference. I don't know of anyone who has been involved in
the heavy work of bringing about change at this base who would feel
comfortable sitting side by side with McCall talking seriously about the
importance of comunity involvement. Perhaps others have an opinion on this.

Let's open it up for debate.