[CPEO-MEF] Early transfer to conservation organizations

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

October 5, 2001

The following comes to us from Laura Olah <olah@speagle.com>

CSWAB DESCRIBES NEW ARMY INITIATIVE TO PUBLIC

Following months of investigation, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
today makes public an Army initiative exploring early transfer of excess
federal properties to non-profit conservation organizations – a
initiative that could effect cleanup and land use at facilities across
the nation and a process that so has excluded local government, effected
communities, and tribal government.  Following is CSWAB’s report...

        As costs to operate and maintain its closing bases increase, the
U.S. military is looking for ways minimize environmental cleanup costs,
control potential site liabilities, and expedite transfer.  A report,
prepared for the U.S. Army by a Virginia-based consulting firm called
BAHR (Businesses of Adams, Hargett and Riley, Inc.), looks at ways to
accelerate the transfer of sites from the Department of Defense
inventory to federal and private conservation groups.

        During the first phase of this initiative, the Army and Navy
nominated specific properties excessed between 1988 and 1995 as likely
candidates for conservation and recreation transfers.  Beginning in
November 2000, BAHR representatives visited each of these properties and
met with what the report describes as “major players” including Army and
Navy personnel, General Services Administration personnel, some Local
Redevelopment Authorities, state and federal agencies, and conservation
organizations.  Each site was visited at least once; some were visited
two or three times.

        Army parcels included: National Guard Bennet, CO (roughly 280
acres); Fort Ord, CA (roughly 800 acres); Hamilton Army Airfield, CA
(roughly 500 acres); Seneca Army Depot, NY (roughly 8000 acres); Camp
Bonneville, WA (roughly 3850 acres); Badger Army Ammunition Plant, WI
(4000 acres); and Pueblo Chemical Depot, CA (roughly 14000 acres).

        Navy parcels included: Alameda Naval Air Station, CA (roughly
1020 acres); Mare Island Naval Shipyard, CA (roughly 130 acres); and
Barbers Point Naval Air Station, HI (roughly 230 acres).

        Currently 72,000 of the 440,000 acres of BRAC (Base Realignment
and Closure) property to be transferred out of the Department of Defense
are in the “unsuitable” category due to the need to address
environmental cleanup requirements, BAHR reports.  In some cases soil
and/or groundwater on these properties may contain residual
contamination below federal cleanup standards but at levels higher than
“pristine” levels Local Reuse Authorities and nearby communities may
demand, BAHR said. In other cases, properties contain unexploded
ordnance (UXOs), BAHR added.

        BAHR suggests EPA Brownfields initiatives are and will continue
to be an important mechanism to reduce cleanup costs specifically in
their role to “promote risk-based cleanups”.  EPA, as the primary
administrator of Superfund, BAHR writes, has historically mandated
stringent standards for cleanup without regard to current or future
intended use of the property.  These standards often require cleaning up
to “background” levels or levels that allow for unrestricted use of the
property.  Such cleanups have proven to be very costly to the military,
BAHR cautions.

        By comparison, EPA policies such as its Brownfields Initiatives
have resulted in what BAHR reports are “more reasonable costs”.  A
majority of cleanups conducted in recent years under the EPA’s
brownfield standards are “risk-based closures that permit some
contamination to remain in place and rely on the implementation and
stewardship of so-called land use controls”, the report concludes.

        Such controls indefinitely restrict the use of the land and its
natural resources.  Land use controls include “institutional controls”
such as deed restrictions that limit how the land is used; for example,
a deed restriction may eliminate farming or gardening as a potential
future use. “Engineering” land use controls physically restrict access
and include include fences and landfill caps.

        Long-term stewardship of land use control is a precarious
business. “At both Army and Navy sites, public officials and communities
alike have serious concerns that significant risks may be posed to
public health and environment if sites are not appropriately monitored,”
BAHR said.

        One way of expediting transfer of contaminated properties that
have a high potential for conservation and recreational use is to
transfer these lands to a non-profit entity, BAHR suggests.  Current
laws, however, do not allow conveyances for parks, recreation, and
wildlife conservation to non-profit conservation groups.

        With support from the military departments, the General Services
Administration, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park
Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, the Navy elected to draft
legislation that would place responsibility for the property transfer
squarely in the hands of the military Service Secretary. The
legislation, if approved by Congress, would only apply to surplus real
property for which there is no pending request for transfer to another
federal agency or other qualified recipient.

        If a conservation group agrees to perform the cleanup under
early transfer authority, it may cost less than if the Army or Navy
managed cleanup themselves.  And while federal CERCLA (Superfund) law
requires federal agencies to make certain disclosures and covenants
regarding the presence of hazardous substances to recipients, BAHR
reports CERCLA does not impose similar requirements on private parties
who sell property.

        “In most cleanups, we would conduct the cleanup before transfer,
but in one case we transferred the property ‘as is’ and ‘where is’ and
gave (the new owners) the money to cleanup and then they bought cleanup
insurance.  We did this at the Presidio with the National Park Service,”
said Mrs. Jan Menig, Department of Army Assistant Chief of Staff for
Installation Management, the office that contracted with BAHR.

        The Department of Defense selected four conservation groups to
illustrate potential interest in excess DoD property although none of
the groups have endorsed the concept, BAHR reports.  The chosen groups
were The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Trust for Public Land, Conservation
Fund, and Land Trust Alliance.  TNC normally buys properties with high
biodiversity value with a goal of eventually selling the properties (at
no profit but with  10% overhead cost recovery) to a federal or state
conservation agency, BAHR said.

        BAHR cautioned, however, that such an approach for excess or
surplus military properties will require thoughtful and careful
involvement of the local community.   “Any effort whose effect would be
to reduce Army or Navy cleanup costs could be viewed locally with
skepticism,” the report concluded.

        BAHR said a subsequent study to look at the feasibility of
implementing these recommendations is likely.

        Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) was organized in
1990 when the community learned private drinking water wells near the
Badger Army Ammunition Plant were polluted with high levels of
cancer-causing chemicals.  Over the last eleven years, CSWAB has
successfully faced these and other challenges with great success.  The
group’s accomplishments include gaining the Army’s withdrawal of a
proposal to incinerate 1,000,000 pounds of waste munitions, blocking a
permit to open burn 2,500 pounds per day of hazardous waste, and
obtaining comprehensive water testing for nearby neighbors.   CSWAB
continues its fight is to build a sustainable future on the prairie now
occupied by the Badger plant -- a cooperative project, bringing together
cultures, resources, and a shared land conservation ethic.  For more
information and to view the complete BAHR report, visit their website at www.cswab.com.

-- 
Laura Olah, Executive Director Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger 
E12629 Weigand's Bay 
South Merrimac, WI  53561 
phone (608)643-3124 fax (608)643-0005 alt fax (608)643-2682 
Email: olah@speagle.com 
Website: http://www.cswab.com

 

-- 


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: 650/961-8918
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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