Environmental Siege

As usual, the end-of-year rush of appropriations bills in Congress is being used to push through all sorts of unrelated measures. One, tacked onto the defense appropriations bill that President Clinton signed into law last month, is worse than most--it is both vindictive and widely harmful. The rider, by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), exempts the Pentagon from a 1992 law that gave state and federal environmental officials the power to fine or penalize federal entities for illegally handling hazardous wastes.

According to a 1994 Pentagon report, the military’s use of acids, corrosives, cyanide, dioxins, herbicides and other toxins has created more than 10,000 suspected hazardous waste sites on active military installations. Stevens’ rider, by removing the threat of penalty, discourages military base commanders and other Pentagon officials from complying with basic environmental standards that civilian industries must uphold. The measure should be repealed by amending one of the budget bills Congress plans to pass this week. Last week, seven Democratic senators urged such action, but it needs the support of a key Republican, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), chairman of the House appropriations defense subcommittee.

The 1992 law gave regional environmental officials important leverage to compel the Pentagon to perform thorough cleanups. For example, when the Pentagon proposed covering fuel storage tanks at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County with four feet of earth last year, Orange County, fearing that dangerous levels of methane would percolate into the air, used the threat of sanctions to press the Pentagon to cap the landfills with asphalt and plastic liners. Stevens reportedly acted out of anger at the Environmental Protection Agency, which this year fined the Army for clean air violations and toxic chemical leaks at Ft. Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Throughout the Cold War, U.S. armed forces put security concerns above ecological ones. As a Virginia base commander told citizens complaining about toxic emissions in 1982, “We’re in the business of protecting the nation, not the environment.” In later years, the national need for a healthy environment gained a higher footing. Congress should reaffirm that the military will abide by environmental law by overturning Stevens’ rider.

To Take Action: Rep. Jerry Lewis, (202) 225-5861. For e-mail, go to www.latimes.com, click on Politics under Breaking News and scroll down to Get Involved box.