NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

Dingell Calls on the DOD to Immediately Halt its Campaign to Exempt Itself from Environmental Laws

Washington, D.C. – Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, today released the following statement at a press conference highlighting broad opposition to the Department of Defense’s campaign to exempt itself from vital environmental laws that protect the public health.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. We are here today because the Department of Defense (DOD) is using the war on terrorism as an excuse and an opportunity to jam through Congress broad exemptions for itself from five of our most important environmental protection laws. The DOD is the biggest toxic waste polluter in the country, and it has been challenging state and federal regulators for years.

"Never has a set of legislative proposals had so much audacity and so little merit. Here are some facts:

• DOD cannot cite a single example where the Clean Air Act, Superfund, or the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act have prevented or held up military training or readiness. In fact there is none. EPA Administrator Whitman has testified as such.
• Each of these laws allow for administrative exemptions if there ever were a conflict with national security or military readiness. DOD Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz acknowledged this fact in his March 7 letter to the Services. Yet the DOD has never sought an administrative exemption for military readiness.
• Contamination of our groundwater from Perchlorate and other munitions-related contaminants is becoming an enormous problem at DOD facilities. Let me cite two examples: Drinking water supplies have been harmed for hundreds of thousands of residents of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Drinking water wells for Aberdeen, Maryland, have been shut down. The drinking water wells for the City of Aberdeen are actually on an operational range at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

"DOD’s response to its polluting activities is not to be a good environmental steward and clean up the problem, but to attack and eliminate state and federal environmental authorities that protect public health.

"The DOD proposals make no sense from a cost and human health perspective. Let me quote the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the American Water Works Association, the National Association of Water Companies, and the Association of California Water Agencies:

‘The DOD proposal would require human health and environmental effects to occur beyond the boundaries of an operational range before action could be taken. Acting only after the damage has been done will incur unnecessary public health risks, unacceptable losses of water sources, and high costs to clean up water supplies and/or secure alternative sources.’

"These exemptions are opposed by the National Association of Attorneys General on a bipartisan basis; the chief environmental officials of the states on a bipartisan basis; the National League of Cities; all of the national environmental organizations; and the national drinking water utility organizations that represent utilities providing drinking water to over 200 million Americans.

"These exemptions are also opposed by the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators, who are the state and local officials charged with actually achieving clean air. Under the DOD proposal, areas with air that is actually dirty would be exempt from further Clean Air Act requirements, so long as they could show that the failure to meet clean air standards was the result of military emissions.

"Such a proposal sets a new standard for environmental "doublespeak" by telling Americans the air is clean, when it in fact remains dirty. Such a double standard could wreak havoc with clean air planning efforts and place federal, state, and local officials in the difficult position of explaining away unhealthy air caused by military air pollution. Such a situation would be fundamentally unfair to all of the non-military sources and business that have struggled for decades to achieve clean air.

"And this week we have the Zogby poll showing that by a margin of 84 to 10, the public opposes exempting the DOD from environmental laws.

"DOD should listen to the public, industry, and state and local governments and immediately halt its campaign to get out from under long-standing environmental laws that protect the public health."

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