Compliance Branch
Overview
The Compliance Program is one of the four pillars that support the Army’s Environmental Stewardship mission. The Compliance Program ensures that operations and activities conducted on and by Fort Lee and the Army in general meet the requirements of federal, state, local and Army environmental regulations, and strives to exceed those requirements whenever possible. The Compliance Program must deal with a diverse spectrum of regulations that cover all facets of the environment including air, water and soil. The Program is divided into Branches with individual program managers and their teams who focus on areas that have the highest risk of impact to natural resources and provide regulatory oversight.
RED PLAN from the Fort Lee SPCC Plan
Program Areas
Stormwater
The EMD storm-water program is used to maintain a General Virginia Pollution Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) storm-water permit for construction activities permit issued by Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) before the permit’s transfer to Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Therefore, each construction/renovation project is mandated by DCR to obtain its own Virginia Storm-water Management Program general permit for their specific construction project undertaken.
The interface between storm water and operations on Fort Lee are governed by three permits. VPDES Permit #VA0059161 addresses water purification training discharges as well as discharges from containment ponds that serve as a spill/pollution prevention measure at the Petroleum Training Facility (PTF) and the Military in the Field (MIF) training area. VPDES Permit #VAR050594 requires visual monitoring of the storm water discharges from various industrial sites on Fort Lee, such as motor pools and service areas. The MS4 Permit # VAR040007 covers general storm water discharges across the post, such as illicit discharges, housekeeping, monitoring of active construction sites, and maintenance of storm water management structures like ponds and biofilters.
Stormwater runoff is rainwater and melted snow that runs off streets, lawns, and other sites. When stormwater is absorbed into the ground, it is filtered and ultimately replenishes aquifers or flows into streams and rivers. In developed areas, however, impervious surfaces such as pavement and roofs prevent precipitation from naturally soaking into the ground. Instead, the water runs rapidly into storm drains, sewer systems, and drainage ditches and can cause:
- Downstream flooding
- Stream bank erosion
- Increased turbidity (muddiness created by stirred up sediment) from erosion
- Habitat destruction
- Changes in the stream flow hydrograph (a graph that displays the flow rate of a stream over a period of time)
- Combined sewer overflows
- Infrastructure damage
- Contaminated streams, rivers, and coastal water
What is an Illicit Discharge?
An illicit discharge is any discharge into a municipal storm sewer system (storm drain) that is not made up entirely of storm water. These discharges are considered illicit because the storm sewer system is not designed to accept, treat, or discharge such non-storm water waste.
Examples of illicit discharges include:
- sewage
- septic tank effluent
- car wash wastewater
- motor oil and antifreeze
- hazardous materials such as paints, solvents, pesticides, and herbicides
- laundry wastewater
- pet and animal waste
When these items enter the storm sewer they are carried directly to streams, rivers and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay with no treatment. This can have serious effects on the ecosystem, wildlife, and ultimately human beings, as most of us get our drinking water from rivers, streams, and other surface waters fed by storm water.
If you observe what you believe to be an illicit discharge, please contact the Compliance Team Leader at 804-734-3772 or 734-5014.
Air Quality
Fort Lee's Air Quality Program ensures that USAG-Fort Lee complies with all applicable federal, state, local and Army regulations. Through its integrated permitting, compliance, technical support, and outreach functions, the Air Quality Program supports Fort Lee's Mission in a responsive, practical manner that safeguards the Garrison Commander's compliance status. The Air Quality Program ensures that environmental stewardship, sustainability, and technical aspects of current and future operations are sufficient to meet the intent of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Fort Lee's sustainability, efficiency goals and strategies.
Fort Lee is regulated under the CAA and CAA Amendments as implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and through the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) air pollution control program. The CAA standards are also integrated into Army Regulation 200-1. Fort Lee falls under the jurisdiction of the air programs administered by USEPA Region 3 (Philadelphia) and the VADEQ Piedmont Regional Office.
To best ensure compliance and programmatic performance, the Air Quality Program is organized into 6 Areas of Responsibility:
- Compliance Assurance & Inspections
- Asbestos / Lead-Based Paint / Mold
- Technical Support / Outreach
- Ozone Depleting Chemicals / Hazardous Air Pollutants
- Permitting
- Greenhouse Gases
Fort Lee is currently classfied as attainment for the 2015 Ozone Standard. The POC for this program is the Air Program Manager-734-5061.
Hazardous Waste Management
The Fort Lee Hazardous Waste Management Program (HWMP) ensures compliance with Federal, State, and local hazardous waste laws and regulations. This includes but may not be limited to: the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) , the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Virginia Hazardous Waste Management Regulation (VAHWMR). This is facilitated through the Fort Lee Hazardous Waste SOP. The HWMP also manages the statutory accumulation facility which holds hazardous waste for disposal. The HWMP also accepts, tracks, and manages Universal Waste in addition to coordinating the recycling of oil, fuel, antifreeze, and semi-precious metals on Fort Lee.
Point of contact for hazardous waste management issues or household hazardous material program is Hazardous Waste Mgr 734-3811 or Compliance Program Manager 734-3772. Call for appointment.
Fort Lee Oil and Hazardous Waste Contingency Plan
A contingency plan, also called an emergency response plan or the full Fort Lee Spill Response Plan is a set of procedures to be followed to minimize the effects of an abnormal event, such as a spill. It is important to note that the plan is not something you read after the fact. It serves as a guide or reminder of the steps to take during your response and identifies personnel and their responsibilities. To be effective, the information in the plan must be material that you are already familiar with. You do not want to be reading your plan for the first time during an emergency.
Emergency phone number for all spills:
- For life threatening emergencies please call 911. Explain that you are on Fort Lee Installation so the dispatcher can route the call to Fort Lee.
- All other spills use 804-734-3627
Location
Hazardous Waste Statutory Accumulation Facility
Corner of 18th St & Quartermaster Rd
Building 7123
Fort Lee, VA 23801
Contact Information
| Business Office Phone | 804-734-3811 / 765-7996 |
| Fax | 804-734-3762 |
Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Logistics Readiness Center (LRC)
The Hazardous Material Control Center (HMCC), building 6212, is established for requisition, receipt, distribution, reutilization, and turn-in of all HAZMAT on the installation.
The purpose of this program is to establish policies and procedures for the life cycle management of HAZMAT on Fort Lee as well a s the following:
- Cradle-to-grave management of HAZMAT through the use of the Enterprise Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health Management Information System (EESOH-MIS) database.
- Establish the authorized life cycle procedures to be followed by all Fort Lee organizations and tenants when acquiring and turning in HAZMAT.
- Establish regulatory compliance and inventory management procedures for all HAZMAT consumed during training or maintenance activities on the installation.
- Implement environmental stewardship with respect to HAZMAT including: reduce inventories, reduce the generation of hazardous waste, provide a safer work environment through the use of authorized environmentally safe materials, and green procurement savings.
- Create Standing Operating Procedures (SOP) to promote consistency in performance.
All post organizations are required to participate in the Hazardous Material Management Program (HMMP). Point of contact is Foreman Hazardous Material Specialist at 734-5243. The Installation policy available on request.
Installation Restoration Program
The IRP is a comprehensive program designed to address contamination from past activities and restore Army lands to useable conditions. It is one of two programs established under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) to identify, investigate and clean up hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants that pose environmental health and safety risks at active military installations and formerly used defense sites (FUDS). The IRP was established in 1975 and is achieving successful restoration of more than 11,000 identified active Army environmental cleanup sites.
IRP response actions (i.e., site identification, investigation, removal actions, remedial actions, or a combination of removal and remedial actions) are used to correct other environmental damage (such as the detection and disposal of unexploded ordnance) that poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or to the environment.
The U.S. Army Environmental Command is responsible for cleanup at active/operating installations under the IRP and the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP), the other DERP program that was established in FY 2009. Response is expected to be completed at 95 percent of both IRP and MMRP sites by FY 2021.
Location
Installation Restoration
Building 7123
Fort Lee, VA 23801
Contact Information
| Installation Restoration | 804-734-5068 |
