Pentagon to Jettison Environmental Responsibilities

[rodeodance]

Pentagon to Jettison Environmental Responsibilities
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121504X.shtml


Tuesday 14 December 2004

New policy drops public health, cleanup and resource conservation duties.

Washington, DC - The Pentagon is moving to sharply reduce its environmental duties, according to a draft directive released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The proposed policy excludes anti-pollution work that does not directly "sustain the national defense mission."

This new "Department of Defense Directive" would replace a Clinton-era directive on "Environmental Security." The new directive trims a listing of Pentagon policy elements by eliminating provisions for:

"Reducing risk to human health and the environment by identifying, evaluating, and where necessary, remediating contamination resulting from past DoD activities";
Protecting, preserving, and, when required, restoring, and enhancing the quality of the environment"; and
Conserving, and restoring where necessary, the natural and cultural heritage represented on DoD installations within the United States."

"The Pentagon is transforming itself into an entity concerned only about its own logistics and facility management - and the public be damned," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, pointing to the Pentagon's recent efforts to exempt itself from an array of environmental laws. "Under this new policy, who will protect America's waters, air and soil from the Pentagon?"

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Read the proposed DoD Directive on Environmental Security
http://www.peer.org/Military/DoDdraftdirective.pdf

See the Current DoD Directive
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html2/d47151x.htm

Look at the Pentagon's Five-Year Plan to Exempt Itself from Environmental Laws
http://www.peer.org/press/304.html

[TreasonousBastard]

1. When did the Pentagon ever...

actually have environmental responsibilities?

Clinton may have directed them, but they pretty much ignored it all

[cap]

2. actually they do...

toxic waste, planning war games around migratory birds...
there's a whole bunch that the Pentagon does do ... maybe not always as much as it should have...but at least there was some modicum of practice. But not anymore

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I remember one of their toxic waste disposal plans...

They included barrels of it in lots that they auctioned off with other stuff. The buyer had to figure out what to do with the stuff.

Planning aerial maneuvers around migratory birds just might have more to do with sucking geese into jet intakes than with the needs of the birds. Migratory birds are a big problem with civilian aviation in many areas.

(Remember the experiment of shooting chickens at airplane windshields to see if they could stand a collision with birds?)

At any rate, I fail to see any consideration of the environment from the military other than a few instances when they have been caught, or want some good PR.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

4. Was wondering the same thing

Considering that about 1/2 mile from my apartment, they're digging up mustard gas, arsenic, and other carcinogens left over from World War I.