News Coverage
Safety, air and water: Defense officials haven't shown pollution rules hurt readiness
Published March 27, 2003
Issues of military readiness take on extra meaning nowadays. Even so, Congress should be skeptical of a Pentagon request for exemptions from environmental protection laws.
Defense officials say some environmental laws impede training and harm combat readiness. Rules may limit maneuvers in some places during mating seasons, they say, or dictate which beaches can be used for practice landings.
They cite the example of Camp Pendleton, Calif., where they say mock landings are restricted to only 1,500 meters of the camp's 17-mile-long beach front. They add concern that a pending lawsuit could designate as much as 56 percent of the base as critical wildlife habitat.
Against these and other problems the military last year sought broad exemptions from environmental law. But the proposals came late in the legislative year, and Congress dropped them. The Pentagon has returned to the subject in this year's defense spending bill, seeking exemptions from laws governing air pollution, toxic waste dumps, endangered species and marine mammals.
Defense officials say they only want more of a common-sense balance between environmental protection and military training needs. But others say they've not made a case. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says readiness reports do not support claims that preparedness is being hurt by environmental laws.
Defense officials have not been able to quantify adverse impact systematically, the GAO says, and don't even have an inventory of all their training ranges.
Neither is it clear why preparedness should permit the Pentagon to skimp on cleanup when its activities foul soil and water. At the Massachusetts Military Reservation, for example, unexploded munitions left on a firing range contaminated drinking water on Cape Cod.
Environmental laws already permit case-by-case exemptions in the interest of national security. Broader exemptions should not be written into law until a good case has been clearly made. So far, it hasn't.