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Excerpt from Environmental Issues and Military Base Closings: Hearings Before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session, May 27, 1993, December 7, 1993 Alameda, California The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room Sd-406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Barbara Boxer acting chairman of the committee presiding. Present: Senators Boxer, Mitchell, Lautenberg, Metzenbaum, Wofford, Chafee, Warner, and Smith. Senator Boxer. Good morning. This hearing will now come to order. I want to welcome everybody here. Chairman Baucus has asked me to fill in for him this morning. His father had an accident and is in the hospital and the Chairman had to fly back to Montana. We all wish him every good wish and hope he will recover quickly and that Senator Baucus will return quickly. What I would like to do is read into the record the Chairman's statement because I think it indicates his concern over this issue. Following that, I will read my statement and then we will open it up to our first panel. This is Chairman Baucus' statement. Opening Statement of Hon. Max Baucus, U.S. Senator From the State of Montana The Committee on Environment and Public Works today will examine environmental issues associated with closing military bases. These issues are of increasing importance as more military bases are closed. We are all aware of the pain and disruption caused when a military base is closed. Not only do the people working on the bases lose their jobs, but the economic base of the surrounding suffers. Understandably, local communities want to minimize the serious economic consequences of closing bases by quickly developing new and productive uses for them. But there is another side to the issue. Many of the bases scheduled for closure are contaminated by health and environmental hazards such as waste solvents, spilled fuel and oil, and hazardous waste. In fact, 15 of the bases that have been scheduled for closing are so contaminated that they are included on the Superfund National Priorities List, and many other bases not listed on the National Priorities List also have serious contamination. Balancing the need to put these bases to productive use and ensuring that they are fully cleaned up is a difficult task. Communities do not want to wait for years while the Federal Government, contractors, and the States study the extent of contamination and argue over remedies. However, returning these bases to productive reuse must also not compromise our protection of human health and the environment. The health of residents, both current and future, and of the environment must not be sacrificed in the pursuit of economic development. Economic development and environmental protection are not inconsistent. I support both goals. More important, I believe we can achieve both. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The purpose of this paper is to take a comprehensive look at the environmental restoration issues surrounding the implementation of the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program. Environmental problems at DoD sites present some unique challenges because environmental priorities must be integrated with the national security missions of each DoD Service. Still environmental hazards must be dealt with before the military bases can be transferred of sold back to the local communities. It is also important for the Federal Government to present a unified picture to the public of a government committed to environmental protection and restoration at it's own facilities at least to the same extent that it is committed to environmental protection at private sites. This paper will examine the statutes and regulations surrounding the environmental cleanups. It will also research the mechanism by which the DoD can best achieve this end and the resources at its disposal for restorations of hazardous/toxic wastes sites at its facilities in the continental U.S. and overseas.
Near the end of its first session, the 109th Congress approved a new round of military base closures and realignments. As the Department of Defense (DoD) implements the new round, potential issues for the 110th Congress include the pace and costs of closing and realigning the bases and the impacts on surrounding communities. The disposal of surplus property has stimulated interest among affected communities in terms of how the land can be redeveloped to replace lost jobs. Environmental contamination can present a challenge to economic redevelopment if funding or technological constraints would limit the degree of cleanup needed to make the land safe for its intended use. Most of the land on bases closed under prior rounds has been cleaned up and transferred for redevelopment. However, some bases have yet to be cleaned up to an extent adequate for the planned land use. Bases closed under the 2005 round could face similar redevelopment delays if a community's preferred land use requires a costly and time-consuming degree of cleanup. This report explains cleanup requirements for the transfer and reuse of properties on closed bases, discusses property transfer status and cleanup costs on bases closed in prior rounds, and examines estimates of costs to clean up bases to be closed in the 2005 round to make these properties safe for civilian reuse.
This testimony reviews the progress of the Department of Defense's (DOD) base realignments and closures (BRAC) in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995 and the implementation of the BRAC Commissions' recommendations. Although some communities surrounding closed base areas are faring better than others, most are recovering from the initial economic impact of base closures. The short-term impact can be very traumatic for BRAC-affected communities, but the long-term economic recovery of communities depends on several factors, including the strength of the national and regional economies and successful redevelopment of base property. Key economic indicators show that the majority of communities surrounding closed bases are faring well economically in relation to U.S. unemployment rates and show some improvement since the time closures began in 1988. Implementation of BRAC recommendations is essentially completed, but title to only 41 percent of unneeded base property has been transferred. As of August 20, 2001, DOD reported that it has essentially implemented all of the BRAC Commission's 451 recommendations. Although DOD has made progress and established numerous initiatives to expedite cleanup, many cleanup activities remain. Cleaning up environmental contamination on BRAC-affected installations has proven to be costly and challenging for DOD and can delay the transfer of the title of property to other users. DOD expects to continue its environmental efforts well beyond fiscal year 2001, the final year of the base closure implementation authority.
This testimony reviews the progress of the Department of Defense's (DOD) base realignments and closures (BRAC) in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995 and the implementation of the BRAC Commissions' recommendations. Although some communities surrounding closed base areas are faring better than others, most are recovering from the initial economic impact of base closures. The short-term impact can be very traumatic for BRAC-affected communities, but the long-term economic recovery of communities depends on several factors, including the strength of the national and regional economies and successful redevelopment of base property. Key economic indicators show that the majority of communities surrounding closed bases are faring well economically in relation to U.S. unemployment rates and show some improvement since the time closures began in 1988. Implementation of BRAC recommendations is essentially completed, but title to only 41 percent of unneeded base property has been transferred. As of August 20, 2001, DOD reported that it has essentially implemented all of the BRAC Commission's 451 recommendations. Although DOD has made progress and established numerous initiatives to expedite cleanup, many cleanup activities remain. Cleaning up environmental contamination on BRAC-affected installations has proven to be costly and challenging for DOD and can delay the transfer of the title of property to other users. DOD expects to continue its environmental efforts well beyond fiscal year 2001, the final year of the base closure implementation authority.
The environmental cleanup of bases closed under the BRAC process has historically been an impediment to the expeditious transfer of unneeded property to other federal and nonfederal parties. While DOD is obligated to ensure that former installation property is cleaned up to a level that is protective of human health and the environment, the cleanup process can delay redevelopment in communities affected by the BRAC process. The House Report accompanying the fiscal year 2016 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill includes a provision for GAO to update its 2007 report on the environmental cleanup and transfer of installations closed under BRAC. This report addresses the extent to which DOD has made progress in: (1) capturing and reporting environmental cleanup costs at installations closed under BRAC and (2) transferring excess property and mitigating any challenges. GAO reviewed DOD guidance, cost data, and property transfer data; visited installations selected from among those with the highest cleanup costs, as well as other factors; and interviewed DOD and service officials.
NSIAD-95-70 Military Bases: Environmental Impact at Closing Installations