[CPEO-MEF] Army wins three top environmental awards

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Army wins three top environmental awards
Text Version

by Spc. Bill Putnam

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 8, 2003) -- The Army won three of the
five awards that the Department of Defense hands out each year for
stewardship of the military's environmental assets.

Every year the DOD awards bases, posts and major commands for balancing
the need to keep their environmental assets -- like cultural and natural
resources -- intact, while helping to keep service members trained for
war.

The three Army winners at the Pentagon ceremony May 7 were: the U.S.
Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, Ariz., for natural resources
conservation, the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga., for
pollution prevention, and the Texas National Guard for cultural
resources conservation.

Operations tempo hasn't made the daily endeavors to upkeep wild areas,
reducing pollution and maintaining training grounds any easier, said the
secretary.

Preserving history for future Texans was the reason that the Texas Army
National Guard earned both a Secretary of the Army Environmental Award
and a Secretary of Defense Environmental Award for installation cultural
resources management.

The Guard established a major maintenance program for the state's third
oldest post, Camp Mabry, in Austin, because the command wanted to
preserve a part of Texas' past for Texas' future, Maj. Gen. Wayne Marty
said.

"It's an important part of Texas history," said Marty, the state's
adjutant general. "We worked to restore it and pass it on to the next
generation."

Founded in 1892, Camp Mabry was the Texas Volunteer Guard's first
permanent post. It was placed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1996.

The 220-acre site was placedon the National Register of Historic Places
in 1996 and nearly $60 million over six years will be spent on building
repairs and renovations.

Marty said he doesn't believe that the Army's environmental policies of
land use and wildlife conservation hamper training on the nearly 40,000
acres of land that the Guard maintains.

"Knowledge and teamwork with scientists keep everything going," he said.
"We're not doing anything new, we're just trying to preserve what he
have."

Reintroducing the Gould's wild turkey back to a portion of its historic
habitat at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., helped that post win the award for
Natural Resources Conservation. The project also won the post the
Secretary of the Army Environmental Award this year.

The bird is plentiful in nearby Mexico, but was hunted into extinction
about 100 years ago in Arizona, said Tom Cochran, a civil engineer on
the fort. The flock has grown to about 200 almost 20 years after it was
reintroduced, Cochran said.

"The birds are now a breeding population for reintroduction elsewhere,"
said Col. Lawrence Portouw, the post's Garrison commander.

This year the post sent seven female and three male birds 75 miles away
to a forest in the Galiuro Mountains, said Cochran.

The post also supports research into western box turtles, lesser
long-nosed bats, and Mexican spotted owls.

"The long-nosed bats have reached about 4,000 this year up from around
1,500 a couple of years ago," noted Cochran.

Manette Messenger, a pollution prevention and compliance team leader, at
Forces Command, said her team's project was a big undertaking that
involved 12 agencies and 44 people.

But it was worth it to keep Army installations viable for future
training, she said.

The team started its project with a 20-year outlook, then started to
look at how environmental policies were constricting training across the
Army, she said.

For example, she said that air quality on some posts around the country
is starting to impact artillery training with smoke. The Army couldn't
get the neccasary permits to fire those rounds down range.

Her team came up with a plan to make sure that those soldiers could
still train without violating the policies, she said. The program's
works through education, outreach and forming partnerships with the
community, she said.

"This is really a future oriented posture that we're trying to get other
major commands to implement," she said.

The Army announced the Secretary of the Army Environmental Awards April
1.

The Alaska District, Corps of Engineers won for Cultural Resource
Management. The district involved the local community to help clean up
and restore historically significant sites at Fort Tidball.

Fort Irwin, Calif., and the National Training Center won for Pollution
Prevention. The post reduced landfill use by 40 percent, cut water use
by 44 million gallons and save 166,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Hohenfels, Germany's 282nd Base Support Battalion won for Environmental
Quality at an overseas installation. The BSB made advances in the areas
of hazardous materials and waste management.

Letterkenny Army Depot, Pa., won the Environmental Restoration award for
using modern technologies to clean ground water.

The Texas Army National Guard earned the Environmental Quality award for
adopting pollution and decreasing the hazardous waste generated on its
lands.

Link to original news item:
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/May2003/a20030508environmentalawards.html

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