From: | "Theodore J. Henry" <thenry@umabnet.ab.umd.edu> |
Date: | 09 Jul 1997 08:36:11 |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | Re: DOD's ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD |
(This is Ted's reply to the posting by a military cleanup staffer ...) With such a belief in dialogue I will respond to this statement. I agree that many environmental contamination actions conducted in the past were not intentional. Although, in my limited time actively on the list, I have not seen such implications (the belief it was intentional) for the most part. What was said is quite true and I am glad to see differing opinions offered. To the other end, there were some activities that were so stupid, that one must question prior intentions. In the case of APG, there is an area where so much mustard agent was dumped into the marsh that the Army went into the marsh in the 1950s to try to clean it up because it was considered a significant risk to the employees near by - in the 1950s! Interestingly, when they tried to apply decontaminating materials in the marsh, the marsh caught on fire and they got the workers out by keeping a hose on them so they would not burn up. A story from military documents. Anyway, I think the concern for disregard comes for current actions not past dumping. Such as the Nike Site UXO removal which was part of the proposed plan for more than 2 years, and then was changed to a removal action where there is less oversight, a move deeply considered inappropriate by the community. Or the 1994 mustard release which the RAB has never received a clear presentation on with regard to changes made in on-post procedures. Lastly, with regard to the public scrutiny placed on the decision process in DoD, it should be noted that this scrutiny is based on (1) past community experience, and (2) legitimate concerns that DoD does not receive the same level of oversight as non-federal entities. Are either one of these invalid or not of substance? I think not. Hopefully, better community involvement from the beginning will reduce these things in time. Ted Henry | |
References
| |
Prev by Date: Re: DoD Future Land Use Next by Date: REPLIES TO TED HENRY | |
Prev by Thread: DOD's ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD Next by Thread: Re: DOD's ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD |