Chapter 14

ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

A strong environment, safety, and occupational health (environmental security) program is an integral component of a strong defense. The Department of Defense has an environmental security program that protects U.S. troops and their families, manages training and living areas carefully, acts as a good citizen and neighbor, and sets a good example to other militaries around the world. DoD works to prevent pollution; restore contaminated properties; conserve natural and cultural resources; comply with environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations; and develop new technologies to improve environmental protection and restoration.

ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD

The new post-Cold War security environment requires a significant evolution in the DoD strategy for managing conflict, and it requires new and innovative defense programs and management philosophies to implement the strategy. DoD's Environmental Security program has incorporated these concerns into its future program emphasis. To support the National Security Strategy, DoD's Environmental Security program has identified three thrust areas: integrating environmental security considerations into the defense acquisition process; strengthening partnerships with states, tribal nations, and citizens; and selectively engaging other militaries in environmental cooperation.

Integrating Environmental Security Considerations Into the Acquisition Process

The first thrust area is integrating environmental security considerations into the acquisition process. One of the two overarching goals for the defense acquisition and technology program is reducing weapon system life-cycle costs. The cornerstone for achieving these goals is acquisition reform, which will enable the Department to reduce those life-cycle costs driven by environmental requirements while also improving environmental performance.

By emphasizing pollution prevention in the design and development of new and existing weapon systems, the environmental impacts and costs of operations can be reduced, while supporting key modernization goals. Decisions made in weapon system design and in the development of maintenance procedures can impact the environment 20 to 30 years in the future. Integrating pollution prevention into weapon system design and development is an effective method for minimizing future environmental, safety, and health problems and for lowering operational costs. DoD is integrating environmental considerations into weapon systems management by including environmental, safety, and health costs in each system's life-cycle cost estimate; identifying and assessing environmental, safety, and health risks and impact; and reducing or eliminating the risks and impact, such as hazardous materials, where feasible.

Partnerships With States, Tribal Nations, and Citizens

DoD's Environmental Security program is forging new partnerships with states, tribal nations, and citizens to ensure DoD is operating efficient installations and providing effective military training. Such partnerships are essential as power to determine environmental outcomes increasingly shifts from the federal government to state and local authorities. Many states and local governments are adopting innovative environmental management approaches, such as favoring pollution prevention over end-of-pipe compliance, permitting multimedia rather than single media contaminants, and concentrating on integrated facility/system approaches rather than individual processes. Public participation is integral to environmental management at the local level. DoD hopes improving its relationships with states, tribal nations, and citizens will streamline regulatory procedures and requirements and improve environmental performance at lower cost.

Environmental Security Cooperation With Other Militaries

The strategy of Preventive Defense is built on the premise that defense establishments have an important role to play in building democracy, trust, and understanding. Defense environmental cooperation can support this essential component of the United States' national strategy. Indeed, Secretary Perry stated, "Our defense environmental programs are becoming another important tool in which to engage the militaries of new democracies. In doing so, we can make a small contribution to a better global environment; and have a positive influence on their approach to defense and the way they manage resources." Today, DoD engages in defense environmental cooperation with Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Australia, Sweden, and many NATO nations. DoD has also integrated defense environmental cooperation into its regional strategies for Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Western Hemisphere.

Beyond cooperation with other militaries, it is becoming increasingly clear that environmental degradation and scarcity of resources play a key role in the causes of conflict and instability in the post-Cold War world. That is why, for the first time, the National Security Strategy recognizes that problems such as environmental degradation and natural resource depletion pose threats to U.S. prosperity and security. Thus, DoD now works with other agencies of the U.S. government to improve understanding of these potential causes of conflict and instability and to create mechanisms to provide adequate warning of future crises.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY PROGRAM

Defense environmental protection is good management. As any good business manager knows, if you pollute today, you pay tomorrow. Like every large industrial organization in America, DoD has an environmental, safety, and health 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, safety, and health regulators. The major elements of the Environmental Security mission -- pollution prevention, environmental technology, compliance, conservation, cleanup, pest management, explosives safety, and safety and occupational health -- are discussed below.

Pollution Prevention

Pollution prevention is at the core of DoD's environmental protection efforts. Pollution prevention reduces or eliminates environmental contamination and degradation through materials management. These efforts reduce the volume and toxicity of substances released or needing disposal at their source, thus reducing the hazards to public health and the environment. Pollution prevention is also a good business approach. Only by reducing or eliminating hazardous materials and those processes that generate hazardous by-products can DoD begin to lower overall compliance and cleanup costs.

WEAPONS SYSTEMS

Eighty percent of DoD's hazardous materials generation can be tied to weapons systems production, maintenance, and disposal. The ultimate goal is to eliminate or reduce the use of hazardous materials within the system acquisition process for both new and existing systems.

In addition to incorporating pollution prevention into system design, DoD is reviewing military specifications and standards to ensure that these do not unnecessarily require the use of hazardous materials in production or operation of weapon systems. In a related initiative, DoD worked with the private sector to develop a commercial standard that provides a systematic process for managing hazardous materials over the approximate 30-year life cycle of a weapon system.

It is equally important that DoD integrate pollution prevention into existing weapon systems, while ensuring operational readiness of these systems is maintained. For example, the Air Force improved the capability of the B-52 fleet by substituting an environmentally-friendly and maintenance-free nickel cadmium battery system. The batteries improved the uptime and will avoid $70 million in expenses over 20 years.

ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTMENT

Significant opportunities exist for innovative regulatory approaches in the pollution prevention area. Environmental Investment (ENVVEST) is a common-sense, cost-effective pilot project initiated in 1996 with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the President's efforts to reinvent environmental management. ENVVEST provides flexibility to a military installation and the local regulators, with stakeholder involvement, to develop specific projects to protect human health and achieve greater overall environmental performance, within the installation's original budget. In the short term, the Department hopes to improve environmental performance at the same cost. In the long term, DoD's goal is to reduce environmental liabilities and cost through pollution prevention. In launching ENVVEST, President Clinton stated, "This project marks the end of one-size-fits-all government regulations. We know what works for one community and company doesn't necessarily work for others." DoD chose Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), California, to be the prototype test installation.

In July 1996, representatives of Vandenberg AFB, DoD, EPA, and the Santa Barbara Air Quality Control District agreed to fund pollution prevention projects to cut air pollution by 10 tons over a four-year period. The local regulatory authority agreed that reducing pollution is preferable to preparing the paperwork required by Title V of the Clean Air Act. Money otherwise spent on preparing permit applications at Vandenberg is now going to projects to upgrade boilers, some of which are 20 to 30 years old. Ultimately, Vandenberg's air emissions will be so low they will not need a Title V permit. The money will then be invested in efforts to reduce emissions, not merely document them. Through ENVVEST, DoD hopes to trade paperwork for performance.

Environmental Technology

Environmental technology affects all aspects of defense environmental security by creating a greater ability to prevent pollution at the source; achieve compliance at less cost; conserve DoD's resources to protect access to land, air, and water; and create faster, less-expensive, and more effective cleanup tools. The Department uses research and development (R&D) funds to develop new technologies in pollution prevention, compliance, conservation, and cleanup to improve the performance of these programs. This is done through the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, and the Service component's R&D efforts. Service-unique environmental problems are addressed through the Services' individual programs.

DoD conducts demonstration and validation of environmental technologies through ESTCP to ensure DoD investments in laboratory research result in technologies that can be successfully fielded and used. Unless DoD successfully transitions innovative environmental technologies, it will never reap the benefit. ESTCP helps in these efforts by systematically identifying user needs, demonstrating and validating new technologies, promoting regulatory and user acceptance, and recommending direct implementation at DoD facilities.

In 1995, ESTCP initiated 26 multiyear technology demonstrations, which included recovering aircraft maintenance and pollutant emissions, biotreating explosives in groundwater, developing advanced sensor technologies for detecting environmental contaminants, and meeting other high priority DoD-unique environmental problems. In 1996, DoD transitioned five technologies successfully demonstrated by ESTCP to DoD users and initiated nine new demonstrations.

Innovative environmental technologies typically yield a large return on the investment made. DoD's return on investment from new remediation technologies, advanced environmental sensors, innovative disposal techniques for DoD waste, and pollution prevention technologies for the DoD industrial base is typically greater than 10 to 1. For example, DoD faces a large and expansive requirement to cleanup berms at closed small arms ranges, which are contaminated with lead. New soil treatment technologies demonstrated at Fort Polk, Louisiana, are expected to reduce the cost of treating contaminated soil by approximately two-thirds, yielding cost avoidance of $250,000 to $500,000 for even small contaminated berms. Projected cost savings across DoD are over $100 million, a return on investment of over 30 to 1. New monitoring and site characterization technologies are also lowering DoD's environmental costs. A new sensor for detecting TNT in groundwater has reduced the cost from hundreds of dollars to only $10 per sample. The Site Characterization and Analysis Penetrometer System (SCAPS) for detecting petroleum products in the sub-surface has now been approved by many state regulators, opening up a rapid and cost-effective approach for characterizing DoD's contaminated sites. Currently, approximately 25 percent of a site's cleanup costs are devoted to site investigation and monitoring. These new technologies can reduce the cost by 30 percent to 50 percent yielding continued savings of millions of dollars every year.

Compliance

Compliance with environmental, safety, and health laws and regulations is an inherent responsibility of each DoD installation and is fundamental to the performance of each installation's mission. Every base must conduct essential activities to operate each day. For example, on a daily basis, installations:

• Provide heat and electricity to maintenance shops, administrative buildings, and housing units. These utility plants emit air pollutants that must be controlled and treated in accordance with the Clean Air Act.
• Paint and remove paint from equipment, such as aircraft, tanks, and ships for corrosion control, chemical agent resistance, and camouflage. These operations create hazardous waste, which must be managed in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and hazardous air pollutants, which must be captured and treated in accordance with the Clean Air Act. The common method of treatment transfers the hazardous constituent to water, creating industrial wastewater.
• Store and dispense fuel to aircraft, tanks, and ships. These tanks require air permits under the Clean Air Act and must meet standards set by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to prevent future leaks and contamination.
• Provide medical care. The incineration of medical waste creates many hazardous pollutants which require Clean Air Act controls and permits.
• Conduct plating operations as part of repair and maintenance of equipment. These plating operations require the use of highly toxic metals and create hazardous waste, hazardous air pollutants, and industrial wastewater.
• Provide safe drinking water to the people who live and work on DoD installations. The Safe Drinking Water Act provides the minimum standards for water sent to homes and office buildings and protects the sources of drinking water.
• Treat wastewater generated by industrial shops and domestic sources. The Clean Water Act sets standards to ensure these wastewaters do not contaminate sources of drinking water and generally protect water quality.

The compliance budget is divided into two basic types of activities -- recurring, day-to-day requirements to maintain compliance with existing environmental regulations and nonrecurring, one-time projects to correct an existing problem, implement a new requirement, or meet a requirement in the near future.

Recurring activities include all environmental activities supporting an installation's mission. These include storing, record keeping, manifesting, transporting, and disposing of hazardous waste; sampling, monitoring, and testing air, drinking water, wastewater, soils, and vegetation; responding to spills; maintaining over 10,000 environmental permits, including record keeping and reporting; and maintaining pollution control equipment.

Nonrecurring activities include individual projects and activities needed when an installation is either out of compliance with an existing regulation or to initially comply with a new regulation to meet a compliance deadline. These include upgrading or replacing wastewater treatment plants, repairing deteriorated sewer lines, removing or replacing underground storage tanks, and preparing Clean Air Act Title V permit applications.

In the past, compliance with environmental regulations typically focused on end-of-pipe controls -- collection, treatment, and disposal of hazardous air and water pollutants and hazardous waste. This strategy resulted in the treatment and disposal of the same pollutants and wastes each year. Increasing hazardous waste and pollutant treatment and disposal costs, threats to human health and the environment, and fines and penalties for noncompliance led DoD and industry to reevaluate these old strategies and move to eliminate the source wherever practical. Therefore, the success of DoD's compliance program is closely tied to the pollution prevention program. Reducing or eliminating pollutants and wastes eliminate a host of regulatory requirements, such as permitting, monitoring, testing, reporting, and record keeping.

UNIFORM NATIONAL DISCHARGE STANDARDS

In 1996, the President signed a Clean Water Act amendment authorizing the Department of Defense and EPA to establish uniform national discharge standards for DoD vessels. In partnership with EPA, the Coast Guard, and interested states, DoD is identifying and establishing standards for those discharges in need of regulation. These standards will be the first ever comprehensive standards for vessel pollution control and will encompass both advanced technology to process waste streams and innovative management practices to prevent pollution.

Conservation

The Department of Defense requires access to large expanses of land, air, and water to conduct military training exercises and test equipment, essential components of mission readiness. Conservation includes the sound management of DoD natural and cultural resources to sustain the military mission and protect access to land, air, and water. DoD controls more than 25 million acres of land, an area about the size of Virginia. Now more than ever, continued use of and access to these lands is required for today's powerful and sophisticated weapons systems which need large areas for training and testing.

LAND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

The Army's Integrated Training Area Management and the Marines' Long-Term Ecological Trend Management Program are outstanding examples of DoD's leadership in protecting training resources through planning and conservation. These programs integrate military training, testing, and other mission requirements with the condition of the land and its ability to support mission requirements. This approach helps trainers determine land-carrying capacity and frequency of training used. The benefits include increased training realism, reduced costs for environmental compliance and restoration, and a continued high level of military readiness and land stewardship. With these programs at their disposal, installation commanders are assured their training mission is not hindered.

DOD's ISLANDS OFNATURE

Due to the existence of buffer zones for noise, ordnance protection, and limited access policies due to security considerations, DoD's land management practices have created areas of rich biological diversity. DoD lands and waters are home to over 200 threatened and endangered species and almost 400 other species considered to be candidates for listing, as well as over 100,000 archeological sites. The Department is moving toward an ecosystem approach to conservation by providing the military greater flexibility in managing its lands and enhancing environmental protection. This approach promotes adaptive management, the use of benchmarks and best available science and sustainable use. At Arnold AFB, Tennessee, site of the development and testing of aerospace systems, rare species of birds, reptiles, and plants continue to grow and thrive -- a perfect example of how performing the military mission and protecting natural resources are not mutually exclusive endeavors. Arnold AFB uses the principles of ecosystem management to ensure the views of all potentially affected stakeholders are incorporated into long-term planning. For its outstanding natural resources conservation program, Arnold AFB won the Nature Conservancy's President's 1995 Conservation Achievement Award. Successful management in this fashion demonstrates that both military readiness and environmental stewardship can be maintained.

Cleanup

Environmental restoration refers to the cleanup of hazardous wastes from past practices at active and former military installations. The goal of the cleanup program is to protect the environment while reducing risks to U.S. troops, their families, and local communities from pollutants due to past practices. In the past, the Department, like private industrial companies and other federal agencies, often disposed of hazardous materials in ways that are unacceptable today. Some of the sites are now contaminated with chemicals previously thought to be harmless. Although the use and disposal of these chemicals were legal at the time, disposal practices were environmentally detrimental.

The Department has continued a major initiative that began in 1995 -- ranking all sites according to their relative risk to human health and the environment. The Department updated the guidance document outlining the relative risk site evaluation process and added guidance to explain how to close sites when cleanup is complete. At the beginning of 1996, DoD had cleaned up over 10,000 of the 22,000 identified sites. Actions are underway at another 10,300 sites.

STATE AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

DoD continues to improve its relationships with regulatory agencies and other stakeholders. Partnerships based on mutual trust and cooperation are vital to the success of the environmental restoration program. An important component of the cleanup program is the Department of Defense/State Memorandum of Agreement (DSMOA) and its associated cooperative agreements. The DSMOA, established in 1990 under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, enhances state and territorial involvement in the cleanup of DoD installations. Through the DSMOA Program, DoD reimburses the states for services when they participate in expediting the cleanup of military installations. Since the implementation of DSMOA, this program has assisted installations across the country in avoiding costs, expediting cleanups, and improving community relations. For example, the state of Alaska has participated in the DSMOA program since 1990 and according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, participation in the program has enabled both parties to avoid litigation, reduce complicated and time-consuming paperwork, and save money.

DoD remains committed to involving communities surrounding its installations in environmental restoration decisions that may affect human health and the environment. Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) are a significant component of DoD's community involvement activities. RABs promote cooperation between the federal government and regulators by providing a forum through which members of affected communities can provide input to an installation's ongoing environmental restoration activities. By the end of FY 1996, over 200 RABs had been formed at both operational and closing installations. RABs are operating in 45 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Marianas Islands and represent all Services.

During FY 1996, DoD focused on ways to provide technical assistance to RABs within the guidance established by Congress in the FY 1996 Authorization Bill. DoD is also looking at ways to create RABs with communities that are proximate to Formerly Used Defense Sites. RABs help in reviewing and evaluating documents and in recommending priorities among sites or projects. By sharing information with their communities, RAB members help instill public confidence in DoD cleanup activities.

Pest Management

The DoD Pest Management Program supports readiness by preventing the negative impact of insects and pests on the Department's national security mission. Diseases like malaria and dengue, transmitted by insect vectors worldwide, historically reduced the health and sustainability of deployed U.S. forces. Pests can also have an economic impact, significantly damaging operational materiel and significantly reducing the maximum service life of installation structures and buildings. The Armed Forces Pest Management Board develops DoD policy for pest management and coordinates the pest management functions within the Department and other federal and state agencies. DoD pest management activities include:

• Providing disease prevention for troops deployed to Bosnia through medical information on disease threats, surveillance and control activities for insects and ticks, and use of the DoD repellent system. DoD gives the same support to military units deployed to other areas of the world where insect-borne diseases are present.
• Expanding activities to prevent and control the spread of nonnative invasive species. The Department increased detection and control activities at military ports and installations on Guam to prevent the spread of brown tree snakes in the Pacific region. The program is highly successful in intercepting and controlling this snake which is a serious ecological threat to the Northern Marianas and Hawaii. Through the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Invasive Weeds, the Department joined other federal agencies to develop a national strategy for the management of nonnative weeds. DoD is promoting partnerships with federal, state, and private agencies to manage noxious weeds on DoD installations.
• Continuing emphasis on the use of integrated pest management to reduce the risks of using pesticides. Newly issued policy reiterated the Department's Comprehensive Pollution Prevention Strategy to use nonchemical, environmentally compatible methods for pest management. The goal is to reduce pesticide use by 50 percent by the end of FY 2000. DoD joined EPA as a partner in its Pesticide Stewardship Program to demonstrate innovative pest management methods.

Explosives Safety

The Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB), established by statute (10 U.S.C. 172), advises the Secretary of Defense and the Service Secretaries on all safety aspects of ammunition and explosives operations. The Board accomplishes this mission by promulgating explosives safety standards and by checking for compliance through explosives safety surveys of DoD facilities that use ammunition and explosives. 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, this year the DDESB has:

• Conducted explosives safety surveys of over 250 DoD facilities worldwide.
• Worked closely with the Services, EPA, state regulatory agencies, tribal nations, and nongovernmental offices in developing appropriate safety standards for storage, transportation, clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO), and disposal of munitions no longer required for military operations.
• Conducted a testing program formulated to enhance explosives safety in partnership with other federal agencies, allied governments, and industry.
• 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 UXO clearance plans. Also, reviewed all similar plans for all Formerly Used Defense Sites requiring UXO clearance operations and worked with EPA, states, tribal nations, and nongovernmental agencies on UXO clearance.
• Conducted the largest international symposium on explosives safety with over 700 participants from 21 attending nations.
• Sponsored a major international forum (450 participants from 14 nations) specifically addressing the problems associated with cleanup of unexploded ordnance.

Safety and Occupational Health

The Safety and Occupational Health program focuses on protecting the defense warfighting assets -- people, weapon systems, facilities, and equipment -- from fire, safety, and health risks. This involves making military weapon systems, installations, and housing safer; curbing workplace injury and illness; and making force protection an inherent part of doing business. These efforts are essential to maintaining combat readiness. Over the past year, the Department has:

• Continued to reduce accidental fatalities of military members, currently at three fatalities per 10,000 members.
• Continued to reduce aircraft accidents, currently at 1.5 major accidents per 100,000 flying hours.
• Incorporated safety and technology into aircraft systems to reduce accidents.
• Lowered the rate of fatalities, injuries, and illnesses in Operation Joint Endeavor (Bosnia) both by sending preventive medicine teams and safety specialists to the theater and by training deploying forces on preventive measures.

A GLOBAL VIEW

DoD has environmental responsibilities and activities around the world. Military-to-military environmental security relationships can be very effective in enhancing the overall relationship between the United States and other nations, while at the same time contributing to overall environmental quality of life. For many years, DoD has been using good environmental practices in its operations throughout the world. DoD has drafted the worldwide Overseas Environmental Baseline Guidance Document as the basic guideline for overseas environmental performance, while specific practices are worked out with the host countries. Additionally, in countries where the United States has bases, DoD has prepared Final Governing Standards to serve as the basis for all environmental programs in that country. DoD's global Environmental Security efforts are aligned with the unified command areas of responsibility (AOR). Comprehensive AOR environmental strategic plans are under development for the United States European Command, United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), and United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). This overseas environmental program, coupled with over 25 years of extensive environmental experience in the United States, allows DoD to employ environmental security as an effective tool in military-to-military relationships and to support the preventive defense strategy.

Based on experience within DoD, it is clear that militaries can do much to avoid having a negative impact on the environment. Furthermore, experience in cooperation with the militaries of NATO since 1980 and with the nations of Central and Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War demonstrates that some militaries are interested in adopting a positive approach to environmental protection. Such efforts contribute directly to improving the quality of life and quality of the environment in these countries and regions and, in turn, assist in maintaining national and regional stability. Some examples of cooperation with other countries include:

• In July 1996, the Secretaryies of Defense, the Secretary of and Energy, and the Administrator of EPA signed a memorandum of understanding on international environmental cooperation. Implementation is currently underway with pilot efforts in the Arctic and the Baltic Sea areas. This is one of many DoD international environmental efforts conducted in close cooperation with the State Department and other U.S. government agencies.
• In September 1996, the Secretary of Defense signed a unique declaration with the Defense Ministers of Norway and Russia on Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) in which the three nations' forces will work together to ensure that their military activities do not harm the Arctic environment. Under AMEC, Russia, Norway, and the United States are undertaking projects on safe handling and storage of radioactive materials, the proper disposal of contaminated materials, and the exchange of information on risk assessments and cleanup technologies and methods.
• Since 1980, DoD has participated in a number of NATO environmental efforts. Currently, DoD either chairs, co-chairs, or is a major participant in 10 NATO environmental multiyear studies.
• DoD and the Swedish military recently published Environmental Guidelines for the Military Sector, a handbook to be used by militaries throughout the world to assist them in establishing or enhancing their environmental programs. Representatives of DoD were also on the team that negotiated a draft NATO environmental agreement with Russia.
• DoD engages in bilateral environmental cooperation with Germany, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Discussions for bilateral cooperation are underway with Finland, Turkey, and Spain.
• Within the last year, DoD Environmental Security activities have been extended to the USPACOM AOR. DoD participates in an active Environmental Trilateral with Australia and Canada. In September 1996, this trilateral, in conjunction with the Commander in Chief, USPACOM, sponsored the first Asia-Pacific Defense Environmental Conference attended by military and civilian officials from over 30 nations and representatives of the environmental and engineering industries of the three sponsoring nations. Planning is underway for additional meetings on a regional basis to address specific issues of common interest.
• In 1997, DoD, in conjunction with the Commander in Chief, USSOUTHCOM, will gather in Miami with the militaries and environmental agencies of the Western Hemisphere nations -- South, Central, and North America -- for the first regional conference on environmental security cooperation.

CONCLUSION

DoD's Environmental Security strategy is to support DoD's overall national security goals into the 21st century by integrating environmental security considerations into the defense acquisition process; forging partnerships with states, tribal nations, and citizens; and selectively engaging in defense environmental cooperation. These efforts will provide a more ready force and a safer environment for future generations.