Defending the Environment

In a flier encouraging local bases to plan Earth Day activities, the Army touted its concern for the environment. “The Army is committed to total compliance with environmental laws,” the flier listed among “Army Earth Day Messages.” What the flier didn’t note is that the Department of Defense has repeatedly tried to exempt itself from a half dozen major environmental laws.

Fortunately, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee, has vehemently opposed such exemptions. She will do so again this year when the department, for the third time, asks to be exempted from the Clean Air Act, the Superfund law and a solid waste disposal law as part of the 2006 Defense Authorization bill. The committee is expected to take up the bill, which currently does not include the exemptions, this week.

The Defense Department says that such laws hamper its readiness. How-ever, the Government Accountability Office and the Environmental Protection Agency have not found this to be the case. “Our analysis of readiness reports from active duty units in fiscal year 2001 showed that very few units reported being unable to achieve combat-ready status due to inadequate training areas,” the GAO wrote.

Two years ago, when the Defense Department asked for exemptions from five environmental laws, then EPA administrator Christie Todd Whitman told Congress, “I don’t believe there is a training mission anywhere in the country that is being held up or not taking place because of environmental protection regulation.” Even the Earth Day flier notes that “environmental dollars enhance readiness and quality of life.”

Still Defense, which controls 25 million acres across the country, persists in arguing that it can’t follow environmental laws. Exempting the military from these three laws would mean that spent munitions, including chemical and depleted uranium weapons, could be left on the ground where they can leak. Further, if such contaminants found their way into groundwater, the EPA and state would be powerless to force the military to correct the situation. That’s why the American Waterworks Association, a group of drinking water utilities, is opposed to the exemptions. The legislative changes Defense is seeking “undermine the ability of water systems to provide Americans with clean, safe drinking water,” the group wrote earlier this month.

Sen. Collins has been successful in keeping such exemptions out of defense authorization bills for two years. She is right to again insist that the military meet environmental laws. She can hold the Army to another one of its Earth Day talking points, which says “The Army is committed to environmental stewardship in all actions.”