hatrack
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Tue Jan-20-04 11:33 AM
Original message |
GAO - Cleanup For Old Military Ranges, Bases Will Take 75-300 Years |
|
Edited on Tue Jan-20-04 11:34 AM by hatrack
WASHINGTON - Removing unexploded munitions and hazardous waste found so far on 15 million acres of shutdown U.S. military ranges could take more than 300 years, congressional auditors say.
In a report to Congress, the General Accounting Office said the Defense Department has yet to assess three-fifths of the 2,307 potentially contaminated sites identified as of September 2002 and has finished cleaning up only 1 percent of them. Some of the areas have been redeveloped for homes and parks.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press before its release, said the Pentagon "does not yet have a complete and viable plan" to guide its remaining cleanups. Assessments of the sites not yet examined in detail for possible explosive hazards, chemical warfare material and chronic health and environmental hazards won't be completed until 2012, the GAO said.
The department's latest cost estimate for the cleanups is anywhere from $8 billion to $35 billion. That's an increase from its previous estimate, little more than a year ago, of up to $20 billion. At the current rate of annual spending - $106 million on average during the Bush administration - the cleanup "could take from 75 to 330 years to complete," the auditors said."
EDIT
|
aquart
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Tue Jan-20-04 11:38 AM
Response to Original message |
1. Then we'd better start now. |
|
Edited on Tue Jan-20-04 11:42 AM by aquart
|
DU
AdBot (1000+ posts) |
Fri Apr 19th 2024, 07:48 PM
Response to Original message |