[CPEO-MEF] Public involvement at former Kelly Air Force Base (TX)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

On April 10, 2007, I attended the Former Kelly Air Force Base 
Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Kelly, a 
closed Air Logistics Center, is one of the most expensive and 
challenging non-Superfund sites in the Defense Department's 
Environmental Restoration program.

One of my objectives was to learn how the Air Force Real Property 
Agency's new policy on RAB membership was affecting public involvement. 
In September 2006, interpreting the newly Promulgated RAB Rule, the Air 
Force excluded from RAB membership community members who lived outside a 
specific geographic area.

There were only four community RAB members at the RAB table April 10. In 
fact, for the second meeting in a row, the RAB was unable to achieve the 
quorum of six necessary to elect a community co-chair. Yet there were 
about a dozen community members sitting in the spectator ("potted palm") 
chairs. Two of those spectators were former RAB members, one of whom had 
worked at the base and the other had lived in an adjacent neighborhood 
for five decades. They don't qualify for membership any more.

During the first 1 1/2 hours of the meeting, we potted palms were asked 
not to pose questions or make comments. After that, there was a public 
comment period. The membership policy, coupled with the restriction on 
participation, greatly limited the interaction. (At the former Moffett 
Field Naval Air Station RAB, non-members frequently take part in 
discussions.) The official technical updates would have been much more 
useful if questions had been entertained.

One of the RAB members questioned the location of the official document 
repository in San Antonio's downtown library, far from the Kelly 
Neighborhood. He also asked for short, plain-language versions of key 
documents.

The Air Force chair suggested that the availability of documents on-line 
might overcome some of the inconvenience. Indeed, to the Air Force's 
credit, the entire administrative record is available in electronic, 
searchable form.

However, neither the Repository nor the on-line Record are easy to use, 
unless one knows what one is looking for. The community impacted by 
Kelly, now and in the past, is low-income, primarily of Mexican descent. 
They have been served by independent technical consultants - who have 
reviewed documents on behalf of the community - but they still need help 
knowing which studies are most important and which decisions might be 
influenced.

Thus, while the Air Force and regulators meet regularly with the public 
at Kelly, public involvement appears to be inadequate. The neighboring 
community suffers because it appears to have little say over the cleanup 
program. The Air Force suffers because it doesn't have the benefit of 
substantial constructive public involvement.

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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