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In an earlier study on the Department of Defense (DoD) war on hazardous waste, we investigated waste measurement at a single depot. In this report, we consider the use of available data to formulate management indicators or indexes for use at all levels of DoD. Initial reports indicate that all of the Military Services have reduced their output of hazardous materials significantly. However, inconsistent data make these reports unreliable, and changes in workload and in the definitions of waste make multiyear analysis difficult. We recommend the following actions: DoD-wide definition and standardization of data, an effort to quantify the changing regulatory climate, examination of waste reductions by generalized production categories, and movement toward risk-based measurements of progress. Those changes will enhance DoD's efforts to achieve national leadership in environmental affairs.
The Department of Defense has made a commitment to reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated at maintenance depots to 50 percent of 1985 levels by 1992. However, two major conditions hamper its effort to assess progress to date. First, DoD believes that the availability and accuracy of waste generation data are limited, and second, DoD's maintenance workload has declined, and DoD is not able to determine with certainty whether reported decreases in hazardous waste generation merely reflect that decline. We studied current reporting processes for workload and waste generation and visited a major Army depot to verify our findings. We conclude that DoD collects enough data to support both hazardous waste measurement system and appropriate workload-based adjustments. Waste should be measured by weight and indexed-that is, adjusted to account for workload changes - based on direct-labor hours. However, the data definitions and collection cycles need to be made consistent across all DoD activities. We found that the data for a single installation can fluctuate widely from year to year as a result of large disposals, transportation contract lapses, or regulatory interventions, among other causes. We conclude that focusing on changes to the waste patterns over a short term for a single installation would be misleading.
Handling environmental matters effectively is the most difficult challenge facing the Department of Defense (DoD) in the years ahead. After a history of disregard and apathy for environmental concerns, the military community has begun to reduce and eliminate environmental pollutants. Although DOD is making progress on many environmental issues, hazardous waste management still poses the greatest challenge. In order to reduce subsequent hazardous waste disposal costs and avoid potential cleanup problems, DOD, Defense Logistics Agency and installations must provide a coordinated approach to hazardous waste management and minimization. To accomplish this, the author provides specific recommendations: (1) Characterize hazardous waste accurately. (2) Dispose of hazardous waste only through reputable firms. (3) Eliminate bureaucratic hindrances to environmental compliance. (4) Train to specific tasks. (5) Increase environmental staffing and funding. (6) Interface actively with regulators. Implementation of the aforementioned recommendations will subsequently enhance DoD's efforts to achieve its long range environmental goals.