Kelly AFB Redevelopment Generates Waste

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

AIR FORCE CALLS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY A WASTE GENERATOR AT KELLY

The following report, based upon  an article in the San Antonio
Express-News (April 1, 1999), almost sounds like a sophisticated April
Fool's joke. I would appreciate hearing from people with direct
knowledge of the situation, since it has enormous policy implications.

The Greater Kelly Development Corp. (GKDC), the reuse authority at Kelly
Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, plans to construct a commercial
office building just inside the installation's main gate. Groundbreaking
is scheduled for May, and the Air Force wants GKDC to pay for the
disposal of contaminated soil from the site. A representative of the Air
Force Base Conversion Agency reportedly wrote, "It is the Air Force's
view that the party responsible for the construction projects that cause
soil to be removed from its original location is the generator of the
waste."

The GKDC responded, however, that it's "naive" to expect redevelopment
without digging into polluted dirt. The reuse authority wrote back, "The
Air Force would do irreparable harm to both ongoing and future rounds of
base closure if you step away from responsibility for these materials."

There is nothing in the article to indicate that the reuse authority has
changed its reuse plan or is overturning an institutional control. Nor
did it explain why the Air Force was allowed to leave contaminated soil
on a site slated for redevelopment.

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
(PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE PHASING OUT
MY OLD E-MAIL ADDRESS: lsiegel@igc.org)
http://www.cpeo.org