Overseas Range Management Directive

[Pauline Simon <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Overseas Range Management Directive

The second Range Management Directive signed on August 17, 1999, by
Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre (Number 4715.12) governs the
management of Active and Inactive Ranges outside the United States. It
is similar to the domestic range Directive, number 4715.11, also signed
by Hamre that day. In comparing the two directives, I found two
important differences, beyond the obvious fact that one applies within
the U.S. and the other only applies abroad.

First, the foreign-range Directive makes little mention of contact with
the public at foreign ranges. Instead, it directs Defense Department
officials to work with host nations. While, as a community activist by
background, I would prefer provisions for direct public participation
outside the U.S., as well as domestically, diplomatic protocol probably
requires that the U.S. government deal with the host government, and
that the host government make provision for public involvement.

Second, for addressing environmental contamination from munitions
constituents, Directive 4715.12 refers to an earlier DoD Directive
(4715.8, Feburary 2, 1998), "Environmental Remediation for DoD
Activities Overseas." In practice, the earlier directive generally
places much weaker cleanup requirements on the Defense Department than
do domestic hazardous waste laws.

Lenny Siegel

-- 


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
http://www.cpeo.org


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