[CPEO-MEF] Defense Environmental R & D Awards

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Researchers Awarded for Grappling With DoD Environmental Issues

By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service
November 30, 2004

WASHINGTON -Some of the nation's top researchers were lauded today for 
their efforts in helping the Defense Department meet environmental 
challenges that impact military readiness.

The awards were handed out during the opening session of a three-day 
symposium sponsored by the Strategic Environment Research Development 
Program and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program.

SERDP is DoD's corporate environmental research and development program 
that focuses on cleanup, compliance, conservation, pollution prevention 
and unexploded ordnance technologies. ESTCP, meanwhile, works to 
identify, demonstrate and test technologies that address the military's 
environmental requirements.

Both organizations are working in partnership with DoD to limit 
environmental challenges that limit use of military training and testing 
installations, as well as current and future liabilities.

Some of the goals of the two organizations are ensuring long-term use of 
training and testing ranges, improving detection and discrimination of 
unexploded ordnance, and accelerating cost-effective cleanup of 
contaminated defense sites.

The topics for discussion at today's opening session were how to deal 
with unexploded ordnances and urban encroachment on DoD training ranges.

Alex A. Beehler, assistant deputy undersecretary of Defense for 
Environment, Safety and Occupational Health, and one of the keynote 
speakers during the symposium, said he shares the concerns of lawmakers 
who say that problem of unexploded ordnance on federal land is an 
"incredible problem."

And while DoD is making "good attempts" to grapple with the problem, he 
said the department still has "a far way to go."

Beehler placed emphasis on the problem of unexploded ordnance by 
relating his own experience.

About 15 years ago unexploded ordnance was discovered in his Washington, 
D.C. City officials were ready to evacuate the entire neighborhood.

He said that while the evacuation never occurred, "the problem 
continues, and there are new discoveries made on a pretty regular 
basis." He said new items are still being found on the site, despite the 
Army Corps of Engineers spending $11 million to clean up the site.

The problem of such ordnance also creates a ripple effect, he said. "Not 
only is it what's in people's back yards, but the fact that relatively 
nearby is people's drinking water supply for the District of Columbia 
and Northern Virginia suburbs."

Beehler told the group that he encourages states to do more to help the 
military, by partnering with DoD to look at ways to deal with the 
unexploded ordnance issue and other problems like encroachment that also 
plague the department.

He said Congress has appropriated money for DoD and military 
installations to "proactively seek opportunities" with local entities, 
conservation groups and states to "operate, manage and own 
conservationally desirable lands," thus creating a "buffer zone" near 
military bases.

"I see this tying into a whole host of opportunities with better 
cooperation, helping the local governments in effective conservation 
that will undoubtedly spill over into the other areas of effective land 
management and how to deal with unexploded ordnance," Beehler said.

Such a balance between the military, the environment and 
conservationists would greatly please Marine Brig. Gen. Willie Williams, 
assistant deputy commandant for installation and logistics (facilities) 
for the Marine Corps.

Addressing the symposium, Williams said that to have an "effective 
force, the Corps must have an effective environmental program in order 
to ensure the ranges and space we need is there when we need it."

"We realize that without proper (environmental) management we would not 
have the ready force that we have today," he said.

Williams said that having training space readily available is a critical 
readiness enabler for the Marine Corps, though he admits the service 
does not possess the ranges needed to "fully rehearse" its operational 
plans.

He noted that during a recent training exercise, the 1st Marine 
Expeditionary Unit crossed the desert between California and Arizona 
partly on public roadways and used the Colorado River for river-crossing 
training.

Because of encroachment near bases, the Marine Corps must compete for 
air space from civilian aviation, sea space for recreational and 
commercial vehicles, and land space due to environmental zones, Williams 
said.

"This competition for space leads us to be constantly balancing our 
military land-use requirements with our environmental-stewardship 
responsibility," he said.

Meanwhile, Williams also noted that urban sprawl has become one of the 
Corps' greatest challenges. Development around bases has forced wildlife 
to seek habitat on military installation where they are protected.

Those receiving awards for helping DoD meet its environmental challenges 
were:

    * Alex Becker, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for 
developing a multi-sensor system for the detection and characterization 
of unexploded ordnance.

    * John Veranath, University of Utah, for the development of a new 
computational and analytical tool for distinguishing local and regional 
sources for fugitive dust

    * John A. Gillies, Ph.D., Desert Research Institute, for his work 
in characterizing and quantifying fugitive dust emissions from 
Department of Defense sources, including unique military activities.

    * Frank E. Loeffler, Georgia Institute of Technology, for his 
project on aerobic and anaerobic transformation of cis-dichloroethene 
and vinyl chloride.

    * Glen Merfeld, GE Global Research, for developing low- temperature 
durable, corrosion-protection powder coatings for temperature- sensitive 
substrates.

    * Susan L. Ustin, University of California, Department of Land, 
Air, and Water Resources, for her work in mapping invasive species using 
imaging spectrometry

For the original, see
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2004/n11302004_2004113013.html

--
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
http://www.cpeo.org


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