Feds to honor obligation to clean up Pease

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

New Hampshire
PORTSMOUTH HERALD
Feds to honor obligation to clean up Pease
By Karen Dandurant, kdandurant@seacoastonline.com
February 26, 2004

PORTSMOUTH - Fears expressed by environmental watchdog groups that
exemptions from several environmental laws being sought by the
Department of Defense would mean the abandonment of efforts to clean up
contamination at the Pease International Tradeport are not founded,
federal officials contend.

"The law is the law," said Glenn Flood, media spokesman for the Office
of the Secretary of Defense. "The Air Force is obligated to clean up
these sites, and we have every intention of doing so."

Jan Pendlebury, of the New Hampshire Environmental Trust, based in
Concord, noted that the Pentagon and the Bush administration are seeking
exemptions from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which deals
with toxic waste. That would mean, said Pendlebury, that the cleanup of
several military locations in New Hampshire may be halted.

"The DOD is currently required to adhere to environmental and public
health laws, which include the cleanup of polluted military
installations," a press release issued by the trust on Tuesday
indicated. "The proposed health and environmental exemptions would
exclude at least 8,087 operational ranges at 516 installations across
the country, covering more than 24 million acres of land.

"Pease Air National Guard in Portsmouth, the New Boston Air Force
Tracking Station and the New Hampshire National Guard Training Site in
Auburn are among the list of installations that will be exempt (if the
Pentagon gets its way)," the release said.

Federal officials, however, went on record as indicating that would not
affect current cleanup efforts at the Pease International Tradeport.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/02262004/news/1941.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CPEO: A DECADE OF SUCCESS.  Your generous support will ensure that our 
important work on military and environmental issues will continue.  
Please consider one of our donation options.  Thank you.
http://www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2086-0|721-0