RE: [CPEO-MEF] Yuba site for homes, golf sits atop WWII explosives

[themissinglink@eznetinc.com]

That makes no sense.  If the complete cleanup budget is $1 billion yet the
actual budget only allows for $200 million then that means the Army accepts
that their cleanup is incomplete.   You cannot then infer that a $1 billion
cleanup is unrealistic if the only reason it is not being done is because
the Army only requested $200 million from congress.  It is unrealistic only
because the fox is guarding the henhouse with the Army being the lead agency
in their own cleanups.  The whole system is a mockery.  Why even go through
the exercise in determining the cleanup standard and cost if the whole thing
comes down to the Army picking some arbitrary pre-conceived number to ask
congress for?

The only way things will change is to attack the system, not work within it.
Federal facility exemptions to environmental laws that affect everyone else
need to be attacked in court.  The EPA needs to be empowered to litigate
against the DOD without going to the Justice Department.  Otherwise there is
no reason to act like public participation matters.

Steven Pollack

I thought the December 4, 2002 article about Camp Beale and the proposed
Yuba Highlands development was a very good piece. However, the reported
$1 billion price tag for cleanup of the former Defense site left me
reeling with sticker shock.

I've since checked with the Army Corps of Engineers, and its best
lifetime project estimate, subject to change, is $200 million. No doubt
$1 billion would buy a more complete cleanup, but it's unrealistic to
expect the military to spend that much on any single unexploded ordnance
site.

Lenny
--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope 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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