Off site sampling

[lhourcle <lhourcle@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>]

Lenny,

Not surprised that the Army policy notes the authority to do it.  It does flag 
the legal issues..which are different from those of the private sector.

At a private site the PRP committee can make a deal with the adjoining 
landowner, pay them some money, offer to hold them harmless etc. and perhaps 
even promise some confidentiality.

The point I was trying to make is that for DoD installations getting the 
pieces in place to go do work off site normally requires going through a heck 
of a lot of bureacracy...because it is normally handled as a real estate 
matter not an environmental.  This normally requires resources not under the 
control of the installation.  This has been a valuable discussion and maybe it 
is time to develop some procedures as to how toget the work done.  This 
probably has to be done service by service as only the Army and Navy 
(Corps/NAVFAC) do all the non BRAC real property work. There are other 
complications if the land owner wants some form of indemnification--as there 
is no statutory authority I can think of that could be used.  To stretch PL 
85-804 requires approval by a service secretary and reporting to Congress.

I believe it was in a private reply that I suggested that the simplest 
approach might be using a state agency that has authority to force sampling to 
do the work as a reimbursable service under 10 USC 2701.  When I was in DoD 
and AF we tried to get EPA to use its authority..but the results varied by 
region and even by people.

Enough said.  Interesting discussion...just trying to share some thoughts that 
I expect are floating around the minds of installation people when they get 
such a request.  Frankly I worry about what kind of remedies are being 
selected if there is a reasonable chance of off site contamination.

--Larry Hourcle