A Superfund site in Montana. (NEWSCOM/FILE)
Pentagon to EPA: You and what army?
By Eoin O'Carroll | 06.30.08
The Washington Post is reporting that the Pentagon is refusing orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up three sites where it dumped chemicals that the EPA says have contaminated soil and drinking water and pose “imminent and substantial” dangers to public health.
The sites are at military bases at Fort Meade in Maryland, Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.
The Post also reports that the EPA has identified 12 Superfund sites contaminated by the Pentagon that the Pentagon refuses to acknowledge, even though it is required to do so by law. Of the 1,255 Superfund sites on the EPA’s list, the Department of Defense owns 129 – making it the single biggest polluter in the country.
The Post says that environmental experts find the Pentagon’s defiance of the EPA 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.”
The law gives the EPA administrator final say in cleanup disputes with other agencies, a rule that the Pentagon refuses to recognize. Instead, Defense Department officials have asked the Justice Department and the White House to intervene.
If it were a private polluter and not the Pentagon, the EPA would most likely go to court to force compliance, but an executive branch policy prevents federal agencies from suing one another.
Other agencies, including NASA and the Department of Energy, have complied with the EPA’s Superfund cleanup orders without protest.
This is the second time in a week that it’s been revealed that the EPA’s authority has been ignored by others in the government. The New York Times reported last Wednesday that, when the EPA sent an e-mail to the White House concluding that greenhouse gasses can be regulated by the Clean Air Act, the White House simply refused to open it, successfully getting the EPA to backtrack.
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2. P McCarthy | 07.02.08
Hey Gary, your all gung ho until the water in your town starts glowing. By the way go have a glass from any of these superfund sites….like right now would be a good idea. Praise the Lord!
3. jenchen | 07.02.08
The Military-knows that Yellowstone (mercury spewing) is about to blow, & that most of this country will be uninhabitable up until the pole shift because of that. So they don’t care, all they want is a new homeland after this one is destroyed-that will be the middle East. All, they have to do is complete their program of genocide there. Oh yeah, isn’t that how they stole America from the Indians. Funny how history repeats itself. That is why all industry (except Military) has left the US, that is why there are more people in prison than farmers in the US. That is why Brazil is now the breadbasket of the world. That is why the US is going bankrupt. That is all the result of our space program too, had they not had satellite photos to tell them that Yellowstone is a super-volcano, they would have never guessed. The prophesied ‘three days of Darkness’ is the Yellowstone eruption and it will be soon-eventually nothing will be left alive in the USA-after the very last cannibal is dead. It couldn’t happen to nicer people!
4. schallb | 07.02.08
Hey jenchen, what makes you think that you’ll be protected anywhere in the world when it goes. See you in the next life.
5. Andrew | 07.02.08
Easy, take 50 billion from the Pentagon and give it to EPA. Find the General who is stonewalling and fire him/her. Start closing bases and backcharging the defense department for cleanup. Start overseas first.
The Military has grown far too large and arrogant.
6. Robert | 07.02.08
You go Gary, as in “why don’t you go homestead on one of these superfund sites?” Land is cheap and your kids will love playing in the dioxin. Have a good time at chemo!
7. ShadowDancer | 07.02.08
Yep the peoples of the Middle East get to be the “New Indians.” You’d thought the theft of our lands would have been enough but they’ve had (New World Order) their greedy paws on a lot of Nations upon the earth. (Mystery Babylon?) Not only could Yellowstone blow, but also the Pacific Rim circle could collapse. More than likely according to prophecy Russia or Russia & China will nuke your Nation & of course be retaliated against in the same manner.
Even if none of those things happen the human race would now pollute it’s self close to extinction eventually. Who says there’s no such thing as progress!
8. Robert Brown | 07.02.08
The only safe places, when the shtf, will be, Venezuela, eastern Columbia,northern Brazil and a few central american areas. This area is protected by ET bases there. Why do you think our illustrious el presidente bought land in Paraguay? But he’s so dumb because Paraguay will be dust in the wind also. Buenos Noches.
9. Jeff Schukow | 07.02.08
As commander and chief if the President does not force compliance the EPA should move to have Congress start impeachment proceeding,s. Congress should also move to cut funding to the Pentagon which failed to account for $1.2 trillion last year alone. All the funding cuts should then be given to the EPA for cleanup of these sites.
Beware of the military industrial complex. There are no grounds for a military this arrogant and unaccountable in the Constitution.
The GAO should be proceeding in the same manner.
10. Georg D. | 07.02.08
I’ve heard about this yellowstone supervolcano due for eruption, it’s a good thing we can talk about this stuff openly, we can all help make the connections. I think the forces to be, will find a way to destroy the internet, it’s destroying what chance they have for world domination.
Power to the people. I think global warming is also drawing attention away from the huge amount of chemicals polluting our environment, from industry to especially the pharmaceutical industry, have you people heard that women lose alot of eostrogen from there tablets straight through there digestive and into the sererage and then into then environment. What does this say about most medications, do our bodies absord it all or is it mostly wasted and ends up in the sea. Have a nice day
11. Eoin | 07.02.08
Jeez! I write a post about a dispute within the US government, and next thing I know we’re ushering in the apocalypse. Lighten up people!
12. David | 07.02.08
The War Industrial Complex now runs America the president is a puppet the congress no longer has any power.
you will drink and eat toxic and like it.
Americans most are brain dead so it doesn’t really matter what they eat.
13. Citizen Bill | 07.02.08
All of government is too large and has been corrupted by itself. Entitlement programs and world hedgemony rule our lives, neither of which we can afford. Politics is now a job instead of a calling. The Constitution has been hijacked.
Our Federal Reserve is a farce (not owned by Americans or the government) and 9/11 was allowed to happen (perhaps facilitated) by this same government (Google WTC 7 and explain what collapsed that building that was not hit by anything). Americans need to wake up and take responsibility for all this and fix it before our Roman Empire collapses. Our rights are disappearing at same rate our dollar is declining. While history has a way of repeating itself, we can be better than that, we just all need to stand tall and speak up. So says Citizen Bill.
14. John | 07.02.08
The “UNITED STATES Of AMERICA” is a corporation Period.
The “united States of America” is our government in limbo since 1913.
Please don’t expect a corporation to act like a government just because the name appears to be the same. Wake The F. up. people Read Read Read.
15. Ed House | 07.02.08
Eoin, I appreciate your article and wish I were still as naive as you. The dollar is collapsing, GM is at a 50 year low, Citizen Bill reports are rights are disappearing. I wish we all could lighten up, but I’m afraid the US as we know it will cease to exist in a few years. Eoin, please tell us why we should lighten up. We and our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan would like to hear. Very Good article though Eoin. Keep them coming.
16. Eoin | 07.02.08
Ed, believe me, it’s my full-time job to contemplate the nightmarish future that we are constructing for ourselves. Dark thoughts of supercyclones, toxic rivers, widespread famine, collapsing governments, bloody resource wars, methane fireballs streaking across the sky, all of those things preoccupy me.
It’s just that I don’t find anxiety to be a particularly useful emotion. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath, focus on what you can do to make the world a little bit better, and do it.
17. Vickie Travis | 07.02.08
I am simply going to quote a Cal EPA enforcement officer - “They will have their way!” See: http://downey.kaiserpapers.info
It is not an over reaction to be concerned. When you pretend to believe things that are not true, just because it’s easier than dealing with the facts, you turn your whole life into a lie. And where’s that get you? I think that attitude is why we are in this mess today.
18. YA | 07.02.08
In theory, it would be easy. Get Congress to punish the Pentagon to force compliance (by cutting funds or closing bases). Unfortunately, Congressmen are terrified to cut funds or close bases, because the “military-industrial complex”, in his cunning wisdom, has spread the tax wealth spending across all States. So, a Congressman who tries to rein in the Pentagon would commit political suicide because it would take money and jobs from its own constituents. When Rumsfeld talked about closing some bases, it’s Congress who got into an uproar and stopped him. And some of the most vocals protests came from Democrats (Feinstein). There is today in the US a powerful network of military-industrial dudes who are incredibly powerful and unaccountable. They don’t run the country, but they have a major impact upon it, and they cannot be controlled by our democratic system. They have their own financing and their own operational capabilities; they operate beside the law, and there is not much we can do about it. I think the showdown with the EPA is just a symptom of that. It’s not about the money to clean-up the sites; they have all the money in the world. It’s hubris. We won’t clean and you can’t make us. Because we rule.
19. Laurie | 07.03.08
the whole place is contaminated….not just these sites mentioned….the EPA, CDC, FDA all these three letter departments are in place to protect the criminals not the public like we have been lead to believe…
The latest in our vegtable contamination is from our own government supplying waste water SLUDGE fertilizer free to our commercial farmers….yes, waste water sludge….I would hate to tell you what might be found in waste water sludge but we are seeing our crops contaminated from this practice…
and the use of nanotechnology organisms to treat the sludge in waste water facilities that has started the new disease called Morgellons…it is from the idiots manipulating organisms nano in size and then setting them free into our environment…no wonder everything is sick and dying from bees and wildlife to humanity we are all in grave danger from the corruption that seaps out of Washington, DC….
These criminals need to be charged with crimes against humanity….what sweet victory that would be…have them spend the rest of their days in a 4 x 4 cell drinking aspartame laden diet drinks and toxic laden food for the rest of their days….and if any ills prevail then treat them with their toxic chemicals they call medications as well….turn them into one big toxic laden human they are…
20. carroll bates | 07.03.08
god bless you laurie you hit the nail rit on the head these filthy parasites need to pay for their deeds,and isreal rit along with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!. prolblem is most of the above and the rest of these pigeons in this country would rather send their children to the other side of the world to kill other women and children than stay here to fight real terrorists (the rich elite and our paid off govt). bennedict arnold had nothing on these treasonist pigs. i stopped supporting terrorism march 15th i sent a comment to congress to stop funding the war. they gave that pig jew bush more anyway! i told them if it kills me i will not pay another fed tax again as long as i live , even if it kills me!! STOP SUPPORTING TERRORISM /STOP PAYING TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22. Randy | 07.04.08
It’ll be a long time
“Superpowers flex their wings
Hold the world on puppet strings
Egos will feed
While citizens bleed
It’s always the way it goes
When will the world listen to reason
I have a feeling it’ll be a long time
We will the truth be come into season
I have a feeling it’ll be a long time
I have a feeling it’ll be a long time
All they want is what they can defend
Before their time is up
Make the same mistakes again
Heard it all before”
23. bulgarian solicitors | 07.07.08
Damn, first two-and-a-half years of my life were on Ft. Meade. Wonder what was wrong there.
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1. Gary Pate | 06.30.08
The EPA is out of control. Good for the DOD to tell them to go to ****. I just wish we private citizens had the power to snub this corrupt & junk science (global warming) based organization.