[CPEO-MEF] Pentagon's Environmentalism Under Fire

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS SERVICE
April 11, 2003
Pentagon's Environmentalism Under Fire

WASHINGTON, DC, April 11, 2003 (ENS) - A new survey finds some one third
of natural and cultural resource specialists at military facilities have
been directed to overlook or circumvent resource laws.

A representative with the Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER) told a House subcommittee of the survey results at
a hearing Thursday and said that civilian specialists who report
environmental problems on military bases risk the loss of their careers.

PEER is a national alliance of local, state and federal resource
professionals.

"Environmental management in Defense agencies is essentially voluntary,"
said Dan Meyer, general counsel to PEER.

"Unless some teeth are put into the system, military standards are not
appropriate replacements for civilian natural resource management laws,"
said Meyer, a former Naval gunnery officer and veteran of the first Gulf
War.

Resource specialists at military facilities constitute the biggest
source of whistleblower complaints at PEER, an employee protection
organization, accounting for one third of PEER's personnel cases, Meyer
told the House panel.

Officers in charge of natural and cultural resource programs at military
bases frequently lack training, have no career incentives for
environmental compliance and are often hostile to the civilian staff who
raise environmental issues, according to PEER.

Meyer testified at a hearing held by the House Resources Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans. The committee is reviewing
the reauthorization of the Sikes Act, which is the basic law governing
military conservation.

This article can be viewed at:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-11-09.asp#anchor2

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