[CPEO-MEF] Vieques and Cape Cod

[joelf@cape.com]

Please Post.

Fellow Environmentalists:

The cause of the people of Vieques should be actively supported by all of
us, particularly those who are endangered by the presence of a U.S.
military base. No where is the injustice imposed upon a neighboring
population by military training more obvious than in Vieques. If their
struggle succeeds, the principles of environmental justice succeed also.

The Viequenses did not ask that their island become the possession of the
United States, much less that it become the principal training ground for
U.S. Navy in the Atlantic, including the Southern Command.

The recent report of the Special Panel on Military Operations on Vieques to
the Secretary of Defense should be regarded as a major victory. Among other
things, the Report recommends that live firing be cut in half, that the
Navy discontinue the use of the Naval Ammunition Facility and that the Navy
leave Vieques in five years. The recommendations certainly were prepared
after full consultation with the Naval chiefs.

While these recommendations are exactly "half-a-loaf", they offer evidence
of the power of the Vieques movement, both politically and through direct
action: The military never concedes a square inch of training range without
a fight. However, our experience on Cape Cod shows that, when confronted
with focused opposition, the Commanders act in accord with doctrine: they
conduct a tactical retreat.

At the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR), on Cape Cod, once one of
the largest Army and Air Force training bases in the U.S., the Army
National Guard, faced with public opposition and EPA orders, has retreated
from the position of "We train like we fight," practicing live artillery
fire and open burning of propellant, through a series of fall back
positions. Coincidentally, the release of the Special Panel Report on
Vieques came only a few days after Massachusetts Governor Cellucci
transferred control of all of the MMR formerly under Army National Guard
administration, in order to create a Water Supply Reserve.

In response, the Guard announced the use of widely touted "Green
Munitions", limited to small arms fire. Even this position is unacceptable.
"Green Munitions" is another piece of military disinformation. The lead has
been taken out of the bullets, but the propellant is unchanged. The M-16 is
a particularly dirty weapon. Emissions include: polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons and heavy metals in the respirable range. Given the lung
cancer elevations in towns surrounding the MMR, we don't want M-16 firing
near our neighborhoods and schools. Confronted with this opposition the
Guard has admitted that the new munitions are not really "Green", but
"Greener"; it will come up with clean propellant by 2003!

Experience shows that each tactical retreat is too little too late. Two
years ago, had the Navy, of its own accord, offered the concessions
contained in the Special Panel Report, it could have gained some local good
will. But, now for two reasons, that half-a-loaf, is not good enough:
First, the Viequenses, through hard work and courage, have learned they can
occupy the ground of political power--this knowledge, once obtained, is not
readily abandoned; Second, by detailing concrete alternatives to half of
Navy training on Vieques, the Special Panel undermined the Navy's repeated
assertion that all of its training was absolutely necessary, and that
Puerto Rico was the unique place in the Western Hemisphere where such
training could occur--the credibility thus lost cannot easily be regained.

Consistent with the Vieques Declaration of July 31, please request of
President Clinton that he order:

(1)     The end of all Naval training on Vieques.
(2)     A complete Remedial Investigation of the Naval Ammunition Facility
including possible soil and groundwater contamination from solvents, fuels,
explosives and propellants.
(3)     The immediate clean-up of all unexploded ordnance and debris on the
surface of the Vieques impact area and in adjacent lands, beaches and water
bodies.
(4)     The development of a comprehensive plan to remediate any damage to
groundwater from solvents, fuels, explosives and propellants and the
removal of all buried ordnance whether unexploded or deliberately buried.
Such removal should not be by means of open detonation, but by use of a
blast chamber with carbon filtration of emissions (as will soon be
installed at the MMR).

There are those who say that the cost of such remediation is prohibitively
great: more than $133 million. This is not a very huge sum. At the MMR, the
Army has allocated $28 million for the current fiscal year to study the
soil and groundwater under the impact area. This is the third year of the
study, so total costs will be well over $50 million--not for clean-up, but
for study!

Also at the MMR, the Air Force has spent approximately $500 million for
study and partial remediation of contamination associated with at least 14
toxic groundwater plumes. The final cost will exceed that figure, not
including costs of operation and maintenance of remediation facilities over
the next 20 years.

Some will say that unlike Cape Cod, Vieques is not solely dependent upon
its own groundwater. However, groundwater, especially in a region
surrounded by ocean, is always precious and will be more so in the future.
No one should discount the fresh water needs of Vieques when it realizes
its true potential as an area of residence, fishing, and tourism.

Environmental controls on the military, and partial clean-up, have come
only after seventeen of hard struggle by the people of Cape Cod. Certainly,
living in one of the United States has been helpful: Congressman Delahunt
has been an unusually intelligent and courageous advocate. Senators Kennedy
and Kerry have been valuable allies. Kennedy, a neighbor of the MMR, holds
a powerful position on the Armed Services Committee.

However, the most important factors are these: Cape Cod contains some of
the most prized real-estate in the U.S. It hosts a multi-billion dollar
tourist industry. Cape Cod is populated by rich and powerful people and
institutions who are not about to allow these assets to be jeopardized by
the desire of the Army to practice shelling, burning and detonation, or by
the unchecked flow of toxic groundwater.

And so the issue of environmental justice for Vieques really comes is truly
a test of the decency of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the rest
of the U.S. Will the bombing continue and clean-up be stalled because
Puerto Ricans do not deserve the same considerations as the people of Cape
Cod?




Joel Feigenbaum
ph: (508) 833-0144
24 Pond View Drive
E. Sandwich MA 02537




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