States Accuse Pentagon Of Threats, Retaliation At Polluted Military Sites!

States Accuse Pentagon Of Threats, Retaliation
Allegations Arise in Base Cleanup Hearing
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 19, 2008

Environmental officials from several states that have tried to force the Pentagon to clean up polluted military sites say the Defense Department has retaliated by reducing or withholding federal oversight dollars due them.

A group representing state environmental officials says California, Colorado, Alabama, Ohio and about a dozen other states have been pressured by the Pentagon to back off the oversight of cleanup at polluted military sites.

"In the worst-case scenarios, the Department of Defense is intimidating a state environmental agency into not pursing enforcement," said Steve Brown, executive director of the Environmental Council of States.

Alabama, for example, ordered the Army to clean up a former chemical weapons school, Camp Sibert, after a study ranked it worst in the nation among old military sites for the hazard of unexploded weapons. Soon after, the Pentagon withheld oversight money and held fast until Alabama revoked the cleanup order, said Dania Rodriguez of the association representing the states.

The Pentagon is the nation's biggest polluter. Of 1,255 Superfund sites, the Pentagon is responsible for 129 -- the most of any entity.

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