Chapter 15

ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

INTRODUCTION

Today, the Department of Defense operates one of the nation's most diverse environmental programs, from toxic waste cleanup to protection of natural and cultural resources, through the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security. Environmental Security tackles many of the same challenges confronting the nation's industrial and commercial sectors, while steadfastly supporting DoD's number one priority -- maintaining the best trained, best equipped, most ready, and most effective military forces in the world.

The Department's environmental efforts have strong bipartisan roots. The program as known today is widely acknowledged to have begun with passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. By the mid-1970s, military bases were beginning to promote environmental awareness. President Reagan signed legislation in 1984 that created the Defense Environmental Restoration Account. The Federal Facilities Compliance Act of 1992 requires federal facilities, including DoD, to comply with hazardous waste rules in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or face fines and penalties from states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In response to the commitments of President Clinton and the earlier efforts of Presidents Reagan and Bush, then-Secretary of Defense Aspin created the office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security in 1993. The Department's goal is to focus and energize the environmental efforts of the defense agencies and military departments and to fully incorporate environmental security into the U.S. defense mission.

SUPPORTING DOD'S MAJOR PRIORITIES

With the continued support of strong national bipartisan interests, DoD has incorporated the tenets of responsible stewardship into everything it does. From pollution prevention, conservation, and compliance, to cleanup of contaminated sites, a high priority is given to defending DoD's future through environmental security. Environmental Security is a critical part of the defense mission in that it supports DoD's major priorities -- readiness, quality of life, and modernization.

• A key readiness requirement is continued access to air, land, and water for training and testing. The 25 million acres of land managed by DoD encompass significant natural and cultural resources. Careful use of the air, land, and water ensures U.S. forces will continue to have access to these resources to train realistically and operate.

• Environmental Security protects the quality of life of U.S. forces and their families. It is essential they receive the same protection from environmental safety and occupational health hazards the rest of America expects.

• Environmental Security enhances modernization through investment in pollution prevention and environmental technology. Incorporating pollution prevention in the weapon system development process can lower costs and improve the environment. For example, the B-2 program incorporated 900 pollution prevention-oriented processes and new materials into its production. These improvements resulted in reducing ozone depleting substance (ODS) use by a substantial amount -- from 184,000 pounds in 1989 to 1,100 pounds in 1995. Production operations starting in 1996 are expected to be ODS free. In addition, the program reduced its costs for disposal of hazardous waste from facility operations from $3.7 million in 1990 to $800,000 in 1993.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY PROGRAM

Like every large industrial organization in America, DoD has an environmental program to protect its people, preserve its access to resources, comply with the law, and be a good corporate citizen. DoD is building a foundation of cooperation and trust with the public and environmental regulators as it meets the challenges at the end of this century. The major elements of the Environmental Security mission -- pollution prevention, compliance, conservation, cleanup, safety and occupational health, explosive safety, and pest management -- are discussed below.

Pollution Prevention

The Department of Defense is strongly committed to a pollution prevention program that affects every aspect of its activities. Pollution prevention averts environmental contamination and degradation through materials management at every level of defense operations, reducing the volume and toxicity of substances released or needing disposal. It also reduces future compliance costs. Only by eliminating hazardous materials or those processes generating hazardous by-products can overall costs be reduced.

Pollution prevention is a good business approach. Most projects pay for themselves in three years or less. In addition, many of the new processes do the job better, safer, faster, and cheaper. In other words, they contribute to readiness, modernization, and quality of life. An example is the aqueous washer. This device cleans parts from aircraft, ships, and motor vehicles more effectively than the old chemical solvent process. In addition, it does it in a fraction of the time previously needed. Other high payback examples include:

• New explosive materials having significantly greater energy density and lower production cost that can be recycled if not used for their original intent.

• High pressure water blasting, using nontoxic detergents, for paint stripping and cleaning, thus reducing solvent consumption, waste, and cost.

DoD components are implementing centralized hazardous materials management programs at many of their facilities. The programs emphasize centralized management, limited distribution, and cradle-to-grave tracking of hazardous materials. These systems streamline tracking by placing bar code labels on all containers used to dispense hazardous materials. Rapid and ensured delivery eliminates the need to store large volumes of materials at the shop level. Benefits include spill risk reduction, reduced procurement, reduced waste generation and, most importantly, a net reduction in costs. The Jacksonville Naval Aviation Depot achieved, over a three year period, a $3.6 million reduction in purchases of hazardous materials, a 50 percent reduction in chemical use, and a 75 percent reduction in shop stocks because of its effective use of centralized hazardous material management.

DoD is also emphasizing pollution prevention in the design and development of new weapon systems. Over time it has become apparent that the operation and maintenance processes associated with weapon systems have an environmental impact. Decisions made in weapon system design and in development of maintenance procedures can have environmental impacts 20 to 30 years in the future. Therefore, integrating pollution prevention into weapon system design and development is an effective method both to minimize future environmental problems and to lower operational costs. DoD is in the process of integrating environmental considerations into weapon systems management by including environmental costs in each system's life-cycle cost estimate; identifying and assessing environmental, safety and occupational health risks and impact; and working to reduce or eliminate the risks and impact where feasible.

In addition to incorporating pollution prevention into system design, DoD is reviewing military specifications and standards to ensure that these standardized documents do not unnecessarily require the use of hazardous materials in production or operation of weapon systems. In a related initiative, DoD is working to adopt commercial standards that incorporate pollution prevention.

Further, DoD is working with industry to reduce the use of hazardous material in manufacturing processes. The initiative, known as the Joint Group on Acquisition Pollution Prevention, involves seven major corporations and all of the Services. The joint group is working with each manufacturer and all of the programs supported at a specific facility to reduce the use of specific hazardous materials in all of the programs at the facility. This initiative benefits both the manufacturer and the government.

It is equally important that DoD integrate pollution prevention into existing weapon systems. Most of the weapon systems DoD operates were designed and produced before the current pollution prevention programs for new systems were put into place. In addition, the modest funding levels for modernization over the past several years have not allowed DoD to phase out older systems. Consequently, DoD cannot rely on modernization to reduce the amount of hazardous materials used in the operation and maintenance (including repair and overhaul) of existing weapon systems and the costs associated with environmental compliance. Current programs to reduce the use of hazardous material in activities such as paint removal indicate that reduction efforts must proceed cautiously to avoid adversely affecting the weapon systems' performance. DoD's experience with efforts to decrease reliance on ozone depleting substances in weapon system operation and maintenance provides numerous lessons learned on how to reduce the use of environmentally harmful materials in weapon system operations while ensuring the operational readiness of these systems. DoD is building on these lessons learned to determine the best and most cost-effective approach to integrate pollution prevention into the management of existing weapon systems. Pollution prevention programs control and ultimately lower weapon system costs in the long term.

Compliance

The continuing challenge of the Department's environmental security compliance program is to protect the readiness of U.S. military forces while meeting federal, state, and local environmental requirements. To assist in this task, the Department established a system of 10 regional Environmental Security offices -- one for each EPA region. These regional offices' mission is to improve communication and coordination among DoD components and regulators, with the goal of improved and more efficient compliance. By working closely with regional, state, and local regulators, the Regional Environmental Coordinators will ensure DoD's operational requirements are addressed while developing new regulations, and that military facilities within the region are informed of new requirements in a timely, efficient, and uniform manner.

DoD works closely with the EPA and state legislatures to develop implementing rules for environmental laws. The main emphasis is to ensure any investment forced by a new rule yields a reasonable improvement to the environment. Furthermore, DoD wants to consider pollution prevention projects that eliminate pollutants and, therefore, compliance requirements, as the preferred response. Costly compliance projects or operations are considered the option of last resort.

Day-to-day operations at installations are intimately connected with environmental compliance. An installation cannot have one without the other. On a daily basis, installations at home and abroad:

• Provide heat and electricity to all buildings, housing, offices, maintenance shops, etc. The operation of power plants is fully regulated under a variety of environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

• Provide fuel for aircraft, tanks, ships, and other vehicles needed to support the mission and base operations. Fueling points and fuels are regulated by the Clean Air Act and the hazardous waste laws.

• Provide safe drinking water, as regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

• Provide medical treatment. Clinics and hospitals generate hazardous waste that is carefully regulated. Some hospitals also have medical waste incinerators, which generate hazardous air pollution and are subject to the Clean Air Act.

• Maintain and overhaul military equipment. Some maintenance activities, such as painting, paint removal, plating, corrosion control, and engine maintenance, produce large amounts of highly toxic pollutants and wastes that are regulated, including spent solvents and metals bearing pollutants.

DoD is subject to the same environmental, health, and safety regulations as private industry. DoD's challenge is to work with regulators to develop rules that are cost effective and protect the environment, to identify cost effective and efficient ways to meet these requirements, and to plan and budget to ensure that the installations remain in compliance. The Department is a leader in environmental compliance, successfully protecting human health and environment while fully performing the defense mission.

Conservation

Land and water access for military operations and training is a perishable commodity, not easily acquired. Sound management of natural and cultural resources sustains the military mission and protects these important resources. DoD controls over 25 million acres of land, about the size of Virginia. Most of this land supports training or testing of new weapon systems. DoD lands and waters are home to over 300 threatened and endangered species and over 100,000 archeological sites. One hundred fifty bases have properties listed or eligible for the National Register of Historic Sites. In many cases, because of the protection afforded by the military reservation, these resources have flourished and been preserved. Some endangered species exist only on military lands. Many conservation measures are directly related to military activities. Some are simply the right thing to do to fulfill obligations of stewardship and respond to community concerns. For example:

• Tank and Troop Training. The Pinon Canyon Training area at Fort Carson, Colorado, operates on a two year rest and rotation schedule for 25 training subunits. At any given time, no more than 50 percent of the total land is in use. Rest and rotation provides better training since the land is given an opportunity to recover from prior exercises. Realistic training is enhanced by presenting the widest variety of venues and training area maintenance costs are reduced by spreading out activity over a larger area.

• Enhanced Management of Threatened and Endangered Species. Active management of protected species can ensure DoD's continued ability to conduct the military mission. Marine Corps efforts at Camp Pendleton, California, have led to a tripling of the population of nesting pairs of an endangered bird, the least Bell's vireo. These efforts convinced the Fish and Wildlife Service to forego designating about 10,200 acres on the base as endangered species critical habitat, an action which would have limited property use.

• Preserving Historic Sites and Buildings. Many military installations were established during the nation's early westward expansion. Others contain more recent physical remnants of U.S. military history, including many associated with the Cold War and World War II. These historic buildings and sites are all part of the United States' national heritage. These resources are important to the facility and the community and can also have a much wider regional or national significance.

By better understanding the ecologies of these regions and their cultural resources, DoD will be better positioned to predict the impact of training activities and to develop appropriate mitigations and modifications, while leading the protection of the assets held in trust for the people of the United States.

Cleanup

The job of restoring toxic waste sites results from DoD's past operations and maintenance activities. Very much like those of private industry, DoD's sites exist due to years of using hazardous materials, now known to be environmentally detrimental. Restoration of DoD's sites will be costly and technically difficult, but is a Cold War mortgage that must be paid.

A variety of sites are found at military installations. Typically, the most difficult type to assess are landfills and those sites with significant groundwater contamination. For groundwater contamination, the flow of water through the soil and subsequent connection to various aquifers must be understood and addressed. For landfills, the challenge is to determine the location and type of contaminants not usually separated before placed in landfills. For example, landfills may contain waste oil and paint, demolition debris, toxic chemicals, metal wastes, sewage sludge, medical wastes, and pesticides. These types of sites require fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and often groundwater modeling to determine the soil layering conditions and the flow of groundwater through the layers, techniques similar to those the oil and mining industries use to search for oil, gas, and minerals.

These efforts (e.g., drilling and sampling) determine the site's characteristics, potential contaminants, and the concentration of the contaminants, in addition to providing alternatives to mitigate the impact of those contaminants on human health and the environment. At some sites, this type of investigation reveals contamination is low enough in concentration to have no impact on human health and the environment. These sites can be closed out, saving money by preventing costly remediation efforts. At other sites, close-out can be based on contamination removal. At many sites, particularly those contaminated with petroleum products, contamination will naturally deteriorate over time (natural attenuation). This type of site requires only minimal cleanup and some monitoring. For the more complex sites, a significant amount of site characterization is required. Alternatives must be evaluated and cleanup work accomplished based on the results.

DoD is committed to prioritizing the use of cleanup resources based on risk to human health and the environment. The Department has developed a sequencing tool that evaluates the relative risk of sites, not to determine if a remedial action is needed, but to categorize the threat of existing site characteristics as compared to a baseline. For the relative risk evaluation, the relationship of the contaminant, the pathway, and the receptor are examined.

DoD intends to use relative risk evaluations to assist in determining the sequence of cleanup at each installation, and for evaluating the appropriate scope for cleanup projects. The Department has had many notable cleanup successes, including:

• Pearl City Junction, Hawaii. By adopting an accelerated cleanup approach at Pearl City Junction, a portion of the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex, the Navy completed in three years a cleanup that would normally have taken five to seven years. The approach consisted of an innovative field investigation, field screening techniques, and public involvement early in the process.

• Barrel Bluffs, King Salmon, Alaska. The Air Force devised a $13 million remedy to cap and monitor several dump sites containing thousands of 55-gallon drums contaminated with fuel, oil, and toxic chemicals. The original remedy, based on excavating the barrels and shipping them to a permitted facility, would have cost about $70 million. A study evaluated all potential alternatives and determined that the lower cost solution was quicker, safer, and well worth the effort.

By effectively balancing legal agreements and relative risk, within the context of a stabilized funding level, the environmental restoration program will continue to make strong and effective progress.

Safety and Occupational Health

Environmental security ensures protection of defense warfighting assets -- people, weapon systems, facilities, and equipment -- from fire, safety, and health risks. This involves making military systems, installations, and housing safer; curbing workplace injury and illness; and making safety awareness an inherent part of doing business. These efforts are essential to maintaining combat readiness.

Over the past year, the Department has:

• Reduced aircraft loss rates and accidental fatality rates to an all-time low.

• Worked with the Department of Labor to identify ways to protect workers and served as a major laboratory for testing new ways to prevent injuries and occupational illness.

• Developed cooperative arrangements with the Departments of Energy and Labor to reduce ergonomic injuries.

• Teamed with the United Auto Workers and the Army to share innovative safety training materials, saving DoD significant costs.

• Developed new policies to improve abatement of lead-based paint, asbestos, and radon at military bases slated for closure. The goal is to reduce cost and speed the transfer of DoD buildings.

• Maintained a smoke-free workplace environment.

Helped the defense industry develop a commercial standard to improve the safety of weapon systems, replacing the outdated military standard.

Explosives Safety

The Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB) was established by statute (10 U.S.C. 172) for the purpose of advising the Secretary of Defense and the Service Secretaries on all safety aspects of ammunition and explosives operations. The Board accomplishes this mission by both promulgating explosives safety standards and checking for compliance through explosives safety surveys of DoD facilities. The Board's efforts focus on enhancing readiness by ensuring survivability of personnel and military resources wherever DoD ammunition and explosives are manufactured, stored, maintained, shipped, demilitarized, or used. Specifically the DDESB has:

• Conducted explosives safety surveys of over 200 DoD facilities worldwide.

• Worked closely with the Services and the Environmental Protection Agency in developing, where required, appropriate safety standards for storing, transporting, and disposing munitions no longer required for military operations.

• Conducted, in partnership with other federal agencies, allied governments, and industry, a testing program formulated to enhance explosives safety.

• Ensured public safety for future use of all facilities identified for lease, transfer, or disposal by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission through review and approval of unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance plans. Also, reviewed all similar plans for all Formerly Used Defense Sites requiring UXO clearance operations.

Pest Management

The DoD Pest Management Program supports readiness in two ways: protecting U.S. forces from the vectors of diseases, such as malaria and dengue, and protecting DoD property, material, and natural resources from pest damage. The Armed Forces Pest Management Board coordinates DoD pest management functions within the Department and with other federal and state agencies. DoD continues to use and move toward full implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) to reduce the risk of pesticide exposure. The IPM approach supports the Department's comprehensive pollution prevention strategy by emphasizing nonchemical, environmentally compatible methods to control disease vectors and pests. DoD's goal is to reduce pesticide use 50 percent by the end of FY 2000. Other pest management initiatives taken by DoD include:

• Establishing a model program to survey for and control brown tree snakes at military ports and installations on Guam. The program has been very successful in controlling and intercepting this snake, which is also a serious ecological threat to Hawaii and the Northern Marianas.

• Promoting DoD partnerships with other federal, state, and private agencies to manage noxious weeds on DoD installations.

• Conducting cooperative research with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop improved skin and clothing repellents to protect U.S. troops against biting insects.

Environmental Technology

The Environmental Technology Program makes investments in environmental research and development for military needs and uses. Promising private sector environmental technologies affecting compliance and pollution prevention and cleanup are examined and screened for applicability to the special needs of the Department of Defense. Selected technologies are tested on site, with federal and state regulators, to obtain certification and get the technology more quickly into the hands of end users.

Environmental technology potentially affects all aspects of defense environmental security by creating a greater ability to prevent pollution at the source, provide compliance at less cost, and create faster, cheaper, and more effective cleanup tools. The programs that develop new environmental solutions to improve DoD performance are the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), and the Service component's research and development.

To ensure DoD investments in environmental technology yield the necessary return, the Department has put increased emphasis on the demonstration and validation of environmental technologies through ESTCP. ESTCP demonstrates and validates new technologies, promotes regulatory and user acceptance, and recommends direct implementation at DoD facilities. In 1995, ESTCP supported 26 technology demonstrations to detoxify waste streams at arsenals, develop solid propellant disposal techniques, employ advanced technologies to treat ordnance-contaminated soil and groundwater, destroy mixed hazardous waste through advanced plasma arc technologies, test advanced bioremediation technologies that address high priority DoD needs, and develop treatments for other DoD unique environmental problems.

The following are examples of DoD's strategy to match environmental technology investments to defense needs:

• Aircraft Depot Maintenance. A more advanced system of aircraft painting was developed, eliminating the use of primers. Called the Unicoat paint system, it speeds painting, reduces cost, and lessens operator exposure.

• Engine Aircraft Parts Electroplating. The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program funded the development of a twin-wire thermal spray and ion vapor deposition process reducing the use of strategic metals and diminishing toxic waste residues.

• Corrosion Control. Introducing high volume-low pressure and airless applicators have eliminated overspray problems, minimizing worker exposure and reducing chemical usage.

• Detection of Unexploded Ordnance. By using laser polarimetry and thermal infrared measurements, ESTCP is testing new remote sensing technologies to perform site characterization at lower cost while keeping personnel safe.

• Cleanup of Explosives Contaminated Groundwater. With advanced oxidation treatment, TNT in groundwater is broken down more quickly into nonhazardous compounds, reducing hazard and accelerating payback. A technology developed by SERDP is now being demonstrated and validated by ESTCP at an Army facility to allow its use across the Department.

• Jet Engine Reuse. The Air Force is highly dependent on plating processes to rebuild distorted and worn surfaces on jet engine casings and other components. Unfortunately, conventional plating approaches are generally expensive, slow, and generate large amounts of hazardous wastes. The Electromagnetic Particle Deposition process, developed by DoD, applies surface coatings by propelling particles against surfaces at hypervelocities, producing the densest possible coating with the best possible bond strength.

DoD's strategy for providing innovative technologies to reduce the financial and mission impact of meeting the Department's environmental goals is threefold: systematic identification of user needs, focused research in and development of new technologies to meet DoD unique needs, and demonstration and validation of innovative technologies to promote rapid implementation.

As Secretary Perry has indicated, "Innovative technologies are critical to our country's national and environmental security. Through advanced technology we can reduce the cost, risk, and time needed to meet the Department's environmental challenges. But unless we successfully transition innovative environmental technologies developed at Federal and private sector laboratories, DoD will never reap the benefit. Many barriers prevent innovative environmental technologies from being implemented at our installations. To overcome these, the department has initiated the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. Using our military facilities, ESTCP will demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the most promising environmental technologies."

A GLOBAL VIEW

DoD has environmental responsibilities and opportunities at U.S. military installations throughout the world. The goals of DoD's International Environmental Activities Office include:

• Overseas Environmental Compliance. DoD developed Final Governing Standards for environmental compliance based on U.S. standards and tailored to the laws and practices of every country where DoD maintains a physical presence. These standards provide critical guidance to commanders in the field and are an important component of U.S. bilateral relationships with host nations. Environmental Security is working with Overseas Environmental Executive Agents to implement and pursue funding for the Final Governing Standards.

• Overseas Environmental Restoration. Environmental restoration is a critical component of negotiations to return U.S. facilities to a host nation. DoD's policy provides for immediate cleanup of imminent and substantial risks to human health and safety, while soliciting host nation contributions for cleanup of less threatening contamination.

• Leadership in NATO. DoD has earned its reputation as a leader in defense environmental security, within NATO and the Partnership for Peace. Through a series of bilateral and multilateral initiatives, DoD is assisting European states to address environmental cleanup at bases converting to civilian use; developing policies and procedures for managing environmental issues in a defense context; building interagency relationships in newly emerging democracies to deal with military environmental contamination; and creating environmental training to institutionalize this knowledge.

• Leadership in the Pacific. Building upon a preexisting trilateral relationship with Canada and Australia, DoD is expanding the use of environmental security as a venue for military-to-military cooperation throughout the Pacific Rim.

• Relationship with Russia. DoD has worked to build an Environmental Security relationship with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Through a bilateral defense environmental agreement and exercises designed to make use of classified assets for environmental purposes, DoD is trying to change both culture and practice in Russia with respect to the environment.

TRAINING THE ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY WORKFORCE

Education and training are the foundation of DoD's environmental security programs. DoD's goal is a highly qualified, well-trained environmental workforce. To achieve this goal, DoD established the Inter-Service Environmental Education Review Board. It will integrate DoD environmental education and training programs into a single school system, eliminate duplication, and improve the quality of courses.

CONCLUSION

Environmental Security supports DoD's priorities of readiness, quality of life, and facility and equipment modernization. Environmental Security's leadership at DoD provides essential support of the military mission by protecting personnel and their families from environmental, safety, and health hazards, through pollution prevention and a long-term view of solving environmental problems. This approach will strengthen the public's trust of DoD, lead to higher environmental quality, improve performance, and lower costs.