GOODMAN TESTIMONY ON HR 1778

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

The following is Sherri Goodman's testimony last Wednesday before the 
House National Security Committee.

Aimee Houghton
______________________

June 17, 1997

GOODMAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members fo the committee. Thank 
you for giving me the opportunity to appear before you today. At 
defense we are strong advocates of responsible environmental reform, 
and we have worked closely with this committee over a number of years 
to achieve important enviornmental reforms. Indeed, we've worked with 
other committees, but particularly this committee.

For example, in fiscal year 1996, we worked closely with the House and 
the Senate defense committees to pass important environmental 
legislation affecting our closing bases that speeds up clean-up and 
allows the department to enter into long-term lease agreements, 
facilitating base reuse. Last year, with bipartisan support in the 
House and the Sentate and with strong backing from the administration 
and the Department of Defense, Congress authorized the devolvement of 
the Defense Environmental Restoration Account to the military 
departments for improved management, and also provided authority to 
allow the transfer of contaminated property before completion of the 
clean-up remedy, which as you know can sometimes take some time to achieve.

The Department of Defense, working closely with Congress, has also 
obtained from Congress a clarification of the meaning of uncontaminated 
property to speed land transfer. And you've provided authority to 
withhold listing on the national priority list of DOD sites that are 
already in a successful clean-up program under other laws. The point 
of these examples is to show the significant progress made on 
environmental reform with this committee working together with the 
Department of Defense. We've been working hard simce I came to the 
department to make environmental programs, our clean-up and compliance 
programs, better, faster, and cheaper. And indeed, Mr. Chairman, while 
you noted in you opening statement that clean-up proceeds sometimes 
slowly and inefficiently, I would note to you that we now invest over 
70 percent of our clean-up dollars in acutal clean-up. We are beyond 
the study phase, and we are moving fairly expeditiously today. In 
fact, we like to think of our model for our defense environmental 
programs as being lean, mean, and green.

Now, it's important to recognize that the reason important 
environmental reforms such as the ones that this committee included on 
the defense authorization bill last year were able to be included 
because we had a bipartisan appraoch which involved all interested 
stakeholders, recognizing that in the environmental area there are 
always many outside of the government who are interested and active 
participants in environmental reforms, including affected agencies and 
other committees.

As you recognized, there are other committees that claim jurisdication 
of our nation's key environmental laws.

Now, on HR 1778, we've not had the time to have that process to involve 
all the stakeholders and other committees yet. And while there's much 
common ground in our views on environmental reform, we must nonconcur 
on most of the provisions in Title III.

We hope the Superfund reform provisions in Title III--particularly 
Sections 301 to 312--signal the start of a fully formed process, which 
will incorporate the views of community stakeholders, other relevent 
congressional committees, while recognizing the importance of the 
administration's principles of Superfund reform in this overall action.

And we, indeed, support Superfund reform through a fully inclusive process.

Title III also contains a provision that would address the Clean Air 
Act standards for military sources. And as many of you know, EPA has 
proposed to make changes to the national ambient air quailty standards 
for ozone and particulate matter.

We, indeed, are--have concerns with how these proposed standards would 
affect the Department of Defense military operations. Section 314 
would not provide the majority of protections that the Department of 
Defense needs in this regard or has obtained in the past from EPA.

But we have been working very closely with all the federal 
agencies--particularly EPA--on these proposed rules. And I am pleased 
to be able to note today, Mr. Chairman, that the administrator of EPA 
has just written to the secretary of defense, in a letter I would like 
to introduce here today, providing assurances to the Department of 
Defense on the major issues we do have on the Clean Air Act proposals 
for ozone and partculate matter.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, the storage and transportation of military 
munitions is of great interest to the Department of defense. Section 
315 seems intended to create a congressional stamp of approval to the 
munitions rule promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency 
earlier this year.

That rule was developed by EPA in consultation witht the Department of 
Defense, and DOD believes it is a good rule, and that it is a rule 
fully supported by both facts and existing law.

Not all parties to the rulemaking share this view, and the rule is in 
litigation right now. As such, I cannot discuss this in detial today. 
However, the Department of Defense woudl be happy to work with you and
your staff and other agencies on this particular provision.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with the 
National Security Committee today. We want to pursue meaningful reform 
with this committee, and to continue the historical progress we have made.

I value our close working relationship. I believe it must continue. 
And I commend the house National Security Committee for entering this 
debate, and I believe it should be made a more integral part of the 
overall Superfund reform process.

And I have received a commitment from EPA and the Council on 
Environmental Quality that they will more fully incorporate the 
committee's staff, the House National Security Committee's staff, into 
its--into the deliberations here on Superfund reform.

And I believe that will be an important part of being able to achieve 
meaningful reform.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.