[CPEO-MEF] Farr wants 'czar' to oversee Ord ordnance cleanup

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MONTEREY HERALD
Farr wants 'czar' to oversee Ord ordnance cleanup
By Sukhjit Purewal
spurewal@montereyherald.com

Frustrated by what he says is an abysmal rate of cleanup of unexploded
ordnance at Fort Ord and other contaminated sites across the nation,
Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, is calling on the federal government to assign
a "czar" to oversee tracking and cleanup efforts.

"There is unexploded ordnance in every single congressional district in
America, and the size of the problem is larger than we thought," Farr
said Tuesday.

Compounding the problem is the poor job being done to track and
decontaminate the ordnance, Farr said.

Farr made the statements as he, along with Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-San
Jose, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, introduced the Department of
Defense's initial inventory report on unexploded ordnance. The
department was required to complete the inventory under legislation
authored by Farr and Blumenauer.

In reference to Fort Ord, the report said the Defense Department had "no
data available" as to the extent of cleanup at Fort Ord. The search for
unexploded shells and other hazardous materials at the former Army base
has been the subject of numerous, costly studies.

"DOD has not done a very thorough job on the unexploded ordnance
inventory if they missed filling in the blanks on Fort Ord," said the
Carmel congressman.

Farr said the military needs a high-level official whose exclusive job
would be to track and coordinate cleanup of contaminated sites.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/6010713.htm

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