[CPEO-MEF] Munitions Response Program summary

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) chapter and appendices in
the Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 Defense Environmental Restoration Program
Annual Report provide a glimpse of the comprehensive inventory that the
Defense Department is scheduled to release at the beginning of June. In
addition to providing a summary of munitions response locations, the
chapter offers new estimates for the cost of completing munitions
response nationally. 

The Defense Department acknowledges that the listings and totals are
subject to change. In fact, it has encouraged federal, state, and tribal
regulatory agencies to work with it to improve the data.

NUMBER OF MMRP SITES

Facility   Total   Under Way  Cleaned Up  Complete from Investig**

ACTIVE*      542       15        0          0
[Sites on active installations]

BRAC          74       28        4         28
[Base Realignment and Closure]

FUDS       1,691      428       22        806
[Formerly Used Defense Sites]

*Perhaps most interesting, the Defense Department has thus far
identified 542 MMRP sites, including only 15 where investigations are
under way, at active installations. These include closed ranges - that
is, ranges not being used or considered available for future use - as
well as discard munitions sites such as burial areas.

**The military has declared responses complete at 860 sites, but most of
those have reached the response complete milestone directly from
investigation. At those sites, the Defense Department has "determined
that the site does not pose a risk to human health or the environment
that requites a munitions response."


COST TO COMPLETE

          FY '03--Complete ($000)    FY '04 Proposed ($000)

Army                   624,912           10,000

Army BRAC              367,517            2,520

Other Army (Mass. Military Reservation)  65,500

Navy                   332,622            8,000

Navy BRAC               24,987            4,707

Air Force              705,682                0***

FUDS                10,091,036           82,120


TOTAL               12,146,756          172,847

***According to the DERP report, the Air Force is addressing unexploded
ordnance risks through its Installation Restoration Program funding.

At Congressional direction, in addition to its official estimates of the
cost to complete responses at these sites, the Defense Department
includes in the chapter (p. 70) high and low cost estimates for
responding to 1) unexploded ordnance and discarded military munitions
and 2) munitions constituents on both operational ranges and the former
ranges summarized above.

Overall, it's clear that it will take a very long time to complete
munitions response at the budget levels planned for fiscal year 2004. It
would be unfair to judge the numbers at active installations, since the
military is just beginning to recognize those sites, but  the proposed
funding levels for Army BRAC and for FUDS are extremely inadequate.

The planned Army BRAC MMRP total of $2.5 million for FY04 is down from
$38.3 million in FY01 and $33.8 million in FY02. At the FY04 rate, it
would take 146 years. At the FY04 level, it would take 123 years to
complete munitions response at Formerly Used Defense Sites.

See http://63.88.245.60/derparc_fy02/derp/indexEight.htm.

To line up the figures in the above tables , please convert that text to
a monospace font such as Courier.


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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