[CPEO-MEF] CLOSURE: Loring AFB (ME) and Lowry AFB (CO)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Cleaning Up the Toxic Legacy of Closed Military Bases

By BRUCE WATSON
Daily Finance
September 24, 2010

The Department of Defense's Base Closure and Realignment Commission 
(BRAC) plans to close 20 military bases across the country by Sept. 15, 
2011. Once a military facility closes, the ripple effect is felt 
throughout the surrounding communities: families lose neighbors, 
businesses lose customers and workers lose jobs. In this series of 
stories, DailyFinance looks at how closures have affected communities in 
the past, and at what some military families and the businesses that 
cater to them plan to do once their base closes.

Military base closures can leave behind a toxic environmental legacy 
that's damaging and expensive to repair. In fact, the U.S. Force and 
Navy both rank among the top 100 polluters in America, and many of the 
bases they've left behind as a result of the BRAC closures have been 
declared Superfund sites by the Environmental Protection Agency.

For most of the 20 bases that are currently slated to close, their path 
to a post-military rebirth will likely involve some measure of 
environmental remediation conducted either by the military or by private 
contractors. Depending upon the level of pollution and the vitality of 
the community, waste cleanup can vary considerably. To get an idea of 
what's ahead for the bases slated to close, we've looked at two distinct 
cleanup cases: Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Me., and Lowry Air 
Force Base in Denver.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/real-estate/closed-military-bases-leave-a-toxic-legacy/19638771/

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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