[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Pentagon flouts EPA order to clean bases

[mary rose]

How long are we going to let this type of thing continue?

mary rose

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster at globalcircle.net>
To: <globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:32 AM
Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Pentagon flouts EPA order to clean bases



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008024864_epa30.html


Pentagon flouts EPA order to clean bases

The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is resisting orders 
from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up three military...

By Lyndsey Layton

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is 
resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up three 
military bases - Fort Meade in Maryland, Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida 
and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey - where the EPA says dumped 
chemicals pose "imminent and substantial" dangers to public health and the 
environment.

The Pentagon also has declined to sign agreements required by law that cover 
12 other military sites on the Superfund list of the most polluted places in 
the country.

The actions leave the EPA in a legal limbo as it addresses growing concerns 
about contaminants on military bases that are seeping into water supplies 
and soil.

Although the law gives final say to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in 
cleanup disputes with other federal agencies, the Pentagon refuses to 
recognize that provision. Experts in environmental law said the Pentagon's 
stand is unprecedented.

"This is stunning," said Rena Steinzor, who helped write the Superfund laws 
as a congressional staffer and now teaches at the University of Maryland Law 
School and is president of the nonprofit Center for Progressive Reform. "The 
idea that they would refuse to sign a final order - that is the height of 
amazing nerve."