CPEO MILITARY CASE STUDIES

Renewable Energy: Avoiding a National Security “Train Wreck”
by Lenny Siegel
July, 2008

CPEO Executive Director Lenny Siegel explores emerging conflicts between the Defense Department and the renewable energy industry. Siegel focuses on land competition in California’s Western Mojave Desert among energy development, national security, habitat preservation, and off-road vehicle recreation, as well as the intereference to radar caused by wind turbines. Siegel suggests cooperative approaches to resolving such conflicts, before it’s too late.

When Is Enough, Enough?
Community Perspectives on Groundwater Treatment at Department of Defense Facilities
by Lenny Siegel
July, 2008

CPEO Executive Director Lenny Siegel evaluated community perspectives on the cleanup of trichloroethylene (TCE) plumes at the closed Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) in Minnesota (New Brighton and Arden Hills) and former Moffett Naval Air Station in the San Francisco Bay Area (Mountain View and Sunnyvale). Specifically, Siegel reviewed the decision to shut down treatment at TCAAP’s Operable Unit 3 (OU3)—the South Plume emanating from the former arsenal—and the debate over future treatment at Moffett Field’s Site 26, the Eastside aquifer.

Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site Expansion: A Cloud Hangs over Southern Colorado
by Lenny Siegel
February, 2008

The Army proposes to nearly triple the size of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in Southern Colorado. Ranchers, supported by a diverse coalition, oppose the expansion. They are fighting to hold on to their property and preserve their way of life—multi-generational, sustainable cattle-raising. With support from Congress, they have delayed the plan, but the threat of future eminent domain depresses the region’s economy.

Communities and VOC Response at Department of Defense Installations
by Lenny Siegel
September, 2007

CPEO Executive Director Lenny Siegel visited communities hosting Defense Installations and discussed Volatile Organic Compound response technologies with community members. In the course of this project, he visited four bases with large environmental restoration programs, known contamination with TCE and/or PCE, and a history of significant community involvement and controversy. He talked with members of Restoration Advisory Boards and other community groups at the following five installations:
• Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, North Carolina
• the Army’s former Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colorado
• former Kelly Air Force Base, Texas
• Otis Air National Guard Base, part of the Massachusetts Military Reservation
• former Moffett Field Naval Air Station, California. (Siegel has served on the Moffett Field Technical Review Committee and Restoration Advisory Board for more than 17 years.)
In addition, Siegel drew upon earlier visits to other military facilities and recent visits to contaminated civilian properties across the country.

Communities and Munitions Response
by Lenny Siegel
September, 2007

The Center for Public Environmental Oversight evaluated public stakeholders’ views of existing and emerging munitions response technologies. In particular, CPEO sought to find out how impacted communities view munitions response strategies in which project teams selectively excavate geophysical anomalies recorded during site surveys. To answer this question, Lenny Siegel visited munitions response sites at Amaknak (Dutch Harbor), Alaska; the former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range, Colorado; Camp Edwards, Massachusetts; and the Former Mojave Gunnery Range Complex, California. In addition, he drew upon earlier visits to numerous other military ranges as well as correspondence with stakeholders from other munitions response properties. He interviewed landowners, members of Restoration Advisory Boards, and other public stakeholders.

Encroachment is a Two-Way Street
by Lenny Siegel
September, 2007

Communities and Chemical Warfare Materiel Disposal
by Lenny Siegel
May, 2007

The Center for Public Environmental Oversight conducted field work to evaluate community attitudes toward the various technologies and approaches to Chemical Warfare Materiel (CWM) response. CPEO Executive Director Lenny Siegel visited five communities where Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) have known CWM issues and interviewed stakeholders, including local, state, and tribal officials. The five FUDS were the American University Experimental Station, Spring Valley, Washington, DC; Amaknak Island, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Aleutian Islands, Alaska; Former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range (also known as Buckley Field), Aurora, Colorado; Black Hills Ordnance Depot, Igloo, South Dakota; and Former Camp Sibert, Steele, Alabama. The stakeholders who took part in this study were remarkably frank, and they offered valuable, though varied opinions about the technologies with which they were familiar.

Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts by Lenny Siegel November, 2006 The Watertown Arsenal, as a whole, stands as model of successful public participation, cleanup, and reuse. In fact, the 48-acre BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) parcel is slated for deletion from the “Superfund” National Priorities List (NPL) this month. Originally built in 1816 to manufacture cannon balls and other weapons of that era, the Arsenal later became the Army Materials Technology Laboratory, complete with its own nuclear reactor—which was removed in 1994. Lacking the sprawling buffer zones required at 20th century Army Ammunition Plants, the Arsenal at its peak covered only 131 acres. Download 7-page, 4.1 MB PDF file with pictures.

Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, Illinois by Lenny Siegel August, 2006 The 24,000-acre Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, in Illinois just south of Chicago, was constructed during the early 1940s. The Manufacturing area produced 4 billion pounds of bulk explosive, primarily TNT and tetryl, through 1977. It is listed twice on the "Superfund" National Priorities List, but most of the cleanup is done. Completion will take several more years, but most of land has been made available for reuse. The new uses - Intermodal cargo transportation, warehousing, a national cemetery, a county landfill, and the first National Tallgrass Prairie - are underway, but removing buildings and debris, as well prairie restoration, will take decades." Download 10-page, 1.8 MB Word or PDF 549 KB file with pictures.

 

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