ADVISORY BOARDS

Last September, to implement the President's Five-Point Plan for Revitalizing Base Closure Communities, the Defense Department (DOD) decided to form Restoration Advisory Boards (RAB's) at all major bases being closed under BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) legislation. As that effort moves forward, the Pentagon has now agreed to convert all of its existing Technical Review Committees into RAB's. By the end of the year, there could be two hundred in operation.

Modeled largely after the February, 1993 recommendations of the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee (FFERDC), the RAB's are designed to give a focused group of public representatives direct two-way communications with military and regulatory officials responsible for environmental restoration at each base. As such, it is an unprecedented experiment in participatory democracy. If successful, it will lead to better, safer, faster, more efficient, and more complete cleanup.

Thus far, however, implementation has been uneven. Three initiatives are underway to improve the process:

When the first RAB's were formed, base officials, EPA staff, and state regulators often strayed from the FFERDC model, selecting unrepresentative groups of citizens to sit on the boards. In response to criticism, EPA and DOD have drafted this guidance, a final version of which is due out now. The guidance builds on a practical guide to forming RAB's developed by the base closure branch of California's Environmental Protection Agency.

Though designed to be flexible, the joint guidance calls for the selection of a diverse cross-section of the local community affected by base contamination and cleanup. It suggests a limit of 20 members, and it provides for a two-step process in which an initial panel of community members, selected by officials, fills out the rest of the board. Those boards that already have too many members are supposed to reduce the redundant representation of constituencies. In response to criticism, from citizen groups, of the appointment of former military officials as "community co-chairs," the guidance clearly states that the community members of each board are to select the community co-chair. It does not, however, contain any warnings against "revolving door" representation.

The House version of Defense Authorization Act contains an amendment based upon a proposal by Representative Robert Underwood of Guam. The amendment provides a statutory basis for the formation of Restoration Advisory Boards, but it leaves the details up to the Department of Defense.

More significant, for the first time it provides Defense Department funds for the procurement of technical assistance for private individuals on RAB's and Technical Review Committees. If enacted in this form, it will make available an amount equal to one quarter of one percent (.25%) of the annual military cleanup budget -- not to exceed $7.5 million in fiscal year 1995.

Unlike an earlier version of the Underwood Amendment, the final bill language leaves the funding mechanism -- including how technical consultants are selected -- up to the Department of Defense. And the final language also makes funding contingent on the submission of an implementation plan to Congress.

The FFERDC recommendation of independent technical assistance for community members of advisory boards is thus a step closer to reality, but it is far from certain. Supporters of the Underwood Amendment are hoping to include stronger language in the Senate version of the Defense Authorization Act, but adequate funds must be included in the Defense Appropriations Act, as well. In addition, other Congressional committees with jurisdiction over EPA's Technical Assistance Grant program must be convinced that the Underwood proposal does not conflict with their efforts.

To make DOD-funded technical assistance a reality, citizens need to let their members of Congress know how important independent technical advice is to the cleanup process. Peter Tyler of the Washington office of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is coordinating citizen efforts to pass the amendment. For info, call 202/898-0150.

Once the amendment becomes law, the process is far from over. The Defense Department still must promulgate regulations governing RAB's and develop plans to implement technical support. While some Defense officials are sympathetic to the FFERDC approach, others still do not understand why citizens can't just rely upon the military's own contractors and consultants. Unless citizens keep applying pressure, there is no assurance that the newly funded assistance will be independent -- that is, under the direction of representatives of the affected communities.

A. To implement the new joint guidance, EPA and the Defense Department are staging a series of six regional workshops. At those workshops, local regulators, base officials, and community co-chairs will be told how to select a diverse membership and establish effective dialogue.

B. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, at Xavier University of New Orleans, is developing programs for involving southern African-Americans in the work of Restoration Advisory Boards.

C. In mid-May, San Francisco State University's Urban Institute, working with Bay Area environmental activists as well as government agencies, held a two-day introductory training workshop, "Getting on Board," for the members of RAB's and the Energy Department's similar Site-Specific Advisory Boards. At least 75 community members of RAB's attended, along with a handful of Defense officials. Most of the attendees were from California and other western states, but five came from Panama, where the U.S. is scheduled to return contaminated bases to Panama's ownership.

More than anything, the San Francisco workshop demonstrated that the neighbors and employees of closing military bases are serious about participating in the cleanup process. Most of the participants spent the entire week-end absorbing a rich diet of panel presentations and discussions. The panels included "How Cleanup Decisions Are Made," "An Introduction to Health and Technical Issues," "The Relationship of Environmental Restoration to Economics," and "The Collection and Dissemination of Information."

Based upon the uniformly positive response of the participants, San Francisco State plan to schedule a second workshop this fall. Meanwhile, a videotape documenting some of the proceedings may be ordered from San Francisco State. Call the Urban Institute at 415/338-6419 for details.

FUNDING UPDATE

The Defense Department's cleanup budget has surmounted the first of four Congressional hurdles, escaping unscathed in the pending House version of the Defense Authorization Act, but it is expected to face tough going in the House Appropriations Committee and in the Senate. The environmental compliance budget was slashed $100 million, however. Environmental research and development won a $10 million boost over the administration's proposed level.

To forestall expected raids on the cleanup budget, Democratic Congressman Dan Hamburg, whose northern California district includes Travis Air Force Base and the residences of many Mare Island Naval Shipyard workers, circulated letters to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and Military Appropriations Subcommittee. Each letter, signed by 22 other California Democratic Congress members, urged full funding of the administration's request.

Below is a summary of the status of the official Defense environmental budget. Other environmental spending, from contractor reimbursement to overseas activity, is included elsewhere in the Defense budget.

	1994	'95 Admin	'95 H. Auth.
	(figures in US$ millions)
Cleanup (DERA)	1,970	2,180	2,180
Cleanup (closing bases)	617	508	508
Compliance	2,010	2,180	2,080
Pollution Prevention	340	392	392
Conservation	130	106	106
Technology	426	298	308

CLEANUP JOBS

In many communities facing the hardship of base closure, cleanup jobs are considered an important bridge to economic recovery. In the 1994 Defense Authorization Act, Congress enacted two provisions designed to harness environmental employment to the recovery effort.

First, it required the Defense Department to give preference, in base closure contracts, to qualified businesses located in the vicinity of the installation and to small business and small "disadvantaged" business concerns. This March, DOD issued an interim rule implementing this provision, and it sought comments before issuing a final rule. The Pacific Studies Center and at least one other public interest organization, the San Francisco-based Arms Control Research Center (ARC), submitted comments saying that the proposed rule did not go far enough implementing the legislation. Both sought more narrow definitions of vicinity -- described as multi-county areas in the DOD rule -- as well as mechanisms for assuring implementation. ARC specifically proposed the formation of Community Contracting and Employment Advisory Boards at each affected site.

Second, an amendment drafted by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) urged DOD to retain and retrain its own civilian employees to do cleanup. The Boxer Amendment is already being implemented at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, California, and activists are proposing a similar approach at the Charleston Naval Base in South Carolina. At Mare Island, the Boxer Amendment not only benefits DOD employees, many of whom wish to remain on the Federal payroll long enough to collect retirement benefits, but it appears to have introduced new efficiencies into the cleanup process. Navy employees work with the Navy's contractors, but there are often tasks that they can complete -- such as on-base photography -- for which contractor employees are unable to achieve authorization.

PARCELIZATION

The armed services, US EPA, and state regulatory agencies have just completed their first CERFA (Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act) evaluations of closing bases. In California, for example, EPA agreed with the Army's assessment that 13,123 of Ford Ord's 28,057 acres were cleared for transfer. Cal-EPA, however, only agreed to 7,539 acres. At Castle Air Force Base 270 acres, only about one tenth of the facility, have been cleared for possible transfer.

Meanwhile, in April EPA Assistant Administrator Elliot Laws issued a memorandum designed to clarify the intent of CERFA. Specifically, Laws determined that property can be ruled "uncontaminated" if minimal amounts of hazardous substances had been stored or released. For example, property should not be denied CERFA clearance simply because heating oil or other household products were stored there. In the absence of evidence of a threat to human health and the environment, the routine application of pesticides also should not prevent clearance for transfer.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS UPDATE

The Army is requesting over $840 million for its Chemical Demilitarization program in fiscal year 1995. Included in this figure is $276 million in construction funding for the building of two hazardous waste incinerators in Umatilla, Oregon and Pine Bluff, Arkansas for the burning of chemical weapons. In addition, it is seeking the release of the $110.9 million appropriated, but fenced, in fiscal 1994 to build the Anniston, Alabama facility. With initial construction complete at Tooele, Utah, this would virtually lock in the incineration technology at four of the eight domestic chemical munitions storage sites.

Both the House Armed Services Committee and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee have approved the $387 million appropriation, but the House Defense Authorization bill will likely include two key amendments. One bars the transportation of chemical stockpiles across state lines,. The second would require the Secretary of Defense to certify that neutralization is not safer than incineration prior to releasing funds for construction of the incinerator proposed for the Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland.

Representatives of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, which links the citizen opponents at all eight domestic stockpile sites as well as the Pacific, were not allowed to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee or the House Defense Appropriations Committee. The Working Group, which has a strong local base near most stockpile sites, continues its nationwide letter writing campaign to urge Congress to abandon incineration in favor of its "Citizen Solution for CW Disposal." For more information, contact the Working Group at the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, 606/986-7565.

PSR FORMS MEDNET

During the Fall of 1993, Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national organization of some 20,000 health professionals and supporters, surveyed a number of community groups currently involved in the military base cleanup issue. PSR sought to determine how a physician-based organization could most effectively serve the needs of community groups. In the survey, community groups clearly expressed a desire for more information on the health impacts of military contamination found on the bases, and they wanted to collaborate more closely with PSR.

In response, PSR has organized the Military Environment Defense Network (MEDNET), a network of PSR physicians, activists, and supporters working on military base environmental issues. MEDNET was designed so that PSR can more effectively share information among PSR's eighty chapters and citizen groups. PSR physician activists associated with MEDNET have already begun to consult with several citizen groups on the health impacts of toxic contamination. MEDNET supplements the PSR Washington office's lead role in tracking Federal policy developments on the military and the environment.

For more information on MEDNET, contact Maria Valenti, PSR MEDNET coordinator, at (617) 497-7440.

Citizens' Report on the Military and the Environment
edited by Lenny Siegel
published by the Pacific Studies Center

This publication is being jointly distributed by organizations dedicated to promoting cleanup, environmental compliance, and pollution prevention at U.S. military bases and contractor facilities. For more information, contact: