Ltr. to The Honorable Sam Brownback

[hdqrs@worldnet.att.net]

Please let us know if any other bases have had simular activities?

Thanks.

Jim Oyler

Ltr. follows:*****************************************************
 Jimmie D. Oyler
 P.O. Box 637
 De Soto, Kansas 66018
 913.583.3236

 Robert S. Conn, Ph.D.
 Environmental Control
 19925 A West 161st. St.
 Olathe, Kansas 66062
 913.768.0499

September 10, 1998

The Honorable Sam Brownback
United States Senate
410 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1604

Dear Senator Brownback:

We are concerned citizens of Johnson County, State of Kansas.

We hereby wish to bring to your attention a genuine concern for the
environmental restoration clean-up program and its impact which is being
imposed on the citizens of Johnson, Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Douglas
Counties of the State of Kansas.

Although the current practices may be mandated by the Defense Department
and approved by the President and Vice President of the United States
for
all closed "excess" Department of Defense/Military bases, we consider
the
activity, as performed at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant (SFAAP) as a
violation and a "Sham" of the Congressional mandated clean-up
regulations.

The Congress of the United States mandated by the passage of 10 U.S.C.
Sections 2701 et al., that all closed and excess DOD facilities receive
environmental restoration. SFAAP is one of those facilities and has
been
closed since 1992.

>From 1992 to the present date, the DOD/Army has provided the present
contractor at SFAAP over 150 million dollars.

The 150 million dollars spent has resulted in the general up-keep of
SFAAP
by mowing the grass, keeping lights on and the burning of approximately
400
buildings contaning asbestos fibers, lead, chemical compounds, and
numerous
toxic metal compounds which is discharged into the air spaces of these
counties. A direct violation of the 1996 Clean Air Act. The contractor
plans to burn the remaining 1,593 buildings, causing additional
pollution
throughout the next 12 months.

It appears the present contractor does not have a contract, but is
operating only on a WWII Presidential Executive Order dating back to
1942.

Of concern is the allowance, by the contractor, to graze cattle at the
SFAAP. Twice a year, some of these cattle are removed and shipped to
various packing plants, the "Red Meat" loaded up with toxic and
carcinogen
chemical agents.

No safeguards or monitors are in place to control which cattle are
removed
from SFAAP, or how the packing plants distribute the processed red meat
throughout the U.S.

No controls are in place that would prevent one school from receiving
the
same SFAAP Red Meat year after year. Additionaly no controls are in
place
that would prevent a local family from purchasing the cattle and having
them processed here in Johnson County, Kansas.

The burning of the buildings, with their water run off, has created a
further environmental pollution problem for the farmers, and all
receiving
streams and ground water sources for surrounding counties.

Senator Brownback, we are asking that you investigate the situation at

SFAAP and stop the further burning of buildings, and the grazing of
cattle.

This environmental clean-up sham at SFAAP being imposed on the citizens
of
Kansas must be investigated and the SFAAP activities curtailed.

We are submitting this letter to you via your Overland Park Office.

We earnestly await your reply and courses of action taken.

Respectively submitted.

 /S/
Jimmie D. Oyler
 /S/
Robert S. Conn