[CPEO-MEF] Vieques GAO report

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Defense Infrastructure: Environmental Cleanup of Former Naval Facilities 
on Vieques

Government Accountability Office
GAO-07-552R
March 26, 2007

This report responds to Congress's request that GAO determine the status 
and estimated costs of environmental cleanup on the island of Vieques. 
For decades, the U.S. Navy conducted ship-to-shore bombing exercises and 
other live-fire training activities on the island, which is located off 
the coast of Puerto Rico. The Navy ceased its operations on Vieques in 
2003. The Navy has transferred the land to the Municipality of Vieques 
and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust for conservation purposes and to 
the Department of the Interior. Although the land has been transferred, 
the Navy remains responsible for environmental cleanup. The cleanup is 
being carried out under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program 
(DERP) that consists of (1) the Installation Restoration Program, which 
addresses cleanup of hazardous substances, and (2) the Military 
Munitions Response Program, which addresses cleanup of munitions.

The Navy has identified 37 potentially contaminated sites on Vieques 
that fall under the installation restoration program. The Navy concluded 
that no further action was required for 9 of these sites, and the 
remaining 28 sites are in various phases of the cleanup process. The 
Navy has allocated about $18.1 million for the investigation and cleanup 
of these sites through fiscal year 2006 and estimates that an additional 
$15.2 million is needed to complete cleanup.

...

For the original abstract and a link to the full report, see
http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?rptno=GAO-07-552R&accno=A67285

--


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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