Is the BRAC Process Working?

[Steven Pollack <themissinglink@eznetinc.com>]

Monday, August 10, 1998

I would find it very interesting to see how much of the EPA and DOD BRAC
cleanup budgets are used for administrative versus remediation costs.

Paying contractors to attend RAB meetings, paying geologists, chemists, and
toxicologist to write endless reports, paying lawyers to defend regulatory
positions, when all we ever do is put caps on landfills and deed restrictions
on ranges anyways. It is like a full employment bill for regulators and DOD
environmental personnel. Caps and deed restrictions are not permanent
solutions to pollution.

The pubic thinks they are spending $100 billion to clean up the environment 
and
maybe 10% ever trickles down to actual remediation spending.

We hear that the DOD is not criminal in their assault on the United States
environment because they did not know any better back then. Then I hear that
the DOD is currently using depleted uranium in artillery. I question the
intelligence of this to a Colonel and am told in essence that I am trying to
increase the risk to American soldiers and there is a clear choice between
winning wars(using DU in artillery) and having a clean environment.

This is insanity. The military cannot be trusted to control the fate of the
environment. CERCLA is a legal process in addition to an environmental one 
and
the law is clear that conflicts of interest are to be avoided. One of our 
city
councilmen cannot be the council liason to the RAB because his company is 
owned
by one of the LRA developers but the Army can determine the level of cleanup
required on a site of their own making and whose budget will pay for the
cleanup?

Shame!

Steven Pollack