- With two wars in two years and the threat of terrorism
likely to continue, the US military wants all the help it can get in protecting
national security. It is an ideal time, supporters say, to reduce the government
regulations that can make it harder to be "mission-ready."
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- For others, however, this politically popular goal conflicts
with long-standing values. Specifically, the Department of Defense authorization
bill that President Bush is scheduled to sign Monday eases the military's
responsibility under two important environmental laws.
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- The bill allows the Navy to redefine "harassment"
under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, making it easier to use low- frequency
sonar suspected of harming whales and dolphins. The Pentagon's $401 billion
authorization bill for the 2004 fiscal year also exempts military bases
from stringent habitat-protection requirements under the federal Endangered
Species Act.
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- In addition, the Pentagon, as it has in the past, is
seeking exemptions to the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (which governs hazardous waste), and the Superfund Act responsible
for cleaning up toxic-waste sites around the country. Last year, an exemption
to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was granted the military as well.
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- The scope of the issue is enormous. The Defense Department
oversees some 25 million acres of military bases and other training facilities.
The military's pollution problems - including corroding bombs and rockets,
and old chemical munitions now outlawed - date back over a century.
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- Over the years, military facilities have come to include
131 hazardous-waste sites on the federal Superfund priority list. They
are also home to more than 300 threatened or endangered species. Ironically,
the pressures of nearby urban development (especially in places like southern
California) have turned military ranges into prime habitat.
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- "As a member of the Armed Services Committee I have
heard many times how endangered species affect the activities of our military,"
says Sen. James Inhofe (R) of Oklahoma, who also chairs the Senate Environment
and Public Works Committee. The US Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton in southern
California, for example, is home to 18 listed species - from the bald eagle
to the Riverside fairy shrimp.
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- Meanwhile, officials say, newer war-fighting equipment,
like aircraft and tracked vehicles, and modernized force structure - part
of the much-vaunted "military transformation" - demand more space
to practice combat.
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- In congressional testimony, senior military commanders
and Pentagon civilians have warned that combat units are finding it harder
to "train like we fight" - the military mantra for achieving
readiness. This year, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned lawmakers
that without waivers to environmental laws, "We're going to end up
sending men and women into battle without the training they need."
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- Lawmakers asked the General Accounting Office, Congress's
investigative arm, to look into the issue. The result of that study, according
to the GAO, "showed that very few units reported being unable to achieve
combat-ready status due to inadequate training areas." Still, the
GAO cautioned, "Over time, the impact of encroachment on training
ranges has gradually increased ... exacerbated by population growth and
urbanization."
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- That increasing encroachment on military training ranges
- especially at a time when US military men and women are being killed
and wounded in Iraq - is a strong argument for lawmakers who have been
wanting to weaken or even do away with the Endangered Species Act.
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- Making a case for giving the Navy a break under the Marine
Mammal Protection Act may be harder. Many marine biologists believe that
the Navy's powerful sonar systems seriously affect and in some cases permanently
damage the animals' means of communication and navigation, sometimes driving
them into a frenzy in which they beach themselves and die.
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- Three years ago, 16 beached whales were found in the
Bahamas after the Navy conducted sonar exercises in the vicinity. Seven
died - apparently the victims of severe sound pressure that caused cranial
hemorrhaging. Whales also beached themselves shortly after exercises in
Greece, California, and the Canary Islands.
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- "Exempting the Pentagon from these laws will allow
the military to threaten whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals with
sonar and underwater explosives, and destroy the habitat of the endangered
birds and mammals that live on the 25 million acres it controls across
the country - with next to no environmental review," says Karen Wayland
of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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- In recent years, the Defense Department has spent billions
cleaning messes and adjusting its way of doing things to account for a
new environmental ethic. "To its credit, the Defense Department has
a leadership record in several areas of endangered-species conservation,"
says John Kostyack, senior counsel with the National Wildlife Federation.
"It can build on that record without altering the Endangered Species
Act, while fulfilling its primary mission without compromise."
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- Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor.
All rights reserved.
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- http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1124/p02s02-usmi.html
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