Federal Facilities Environmental Journal最新文献

The United States has more than 3.5 million miles of rivers and streams that, along with closely associated floodplain and upland areas, comprise corridors of great economic, social, cultural, and environmental value. These corridors support higher rates of biological productivity than almost any other landscape feature. They also contribute significantly to each military installation's unique character. Interest in restoring stream corridor ecosystems is expanding rapidly in the United States. With this in mind, 15 federal agencies formed the Federal Interagency Stream Restoration Working Group in 1995 to seek consensus on the fundamentals of modern approaches to stream restoration and to promote awareness and use of these methods throughout the nation. This unprecedented collaboration produced a comprehensive publication, entitled Stream Corridor Restoration: Principles, Processes, and Practices, which has begun to serve as a foundation of stream corridor restoration knowledge and practice nationwide. Attention to these aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems is a common theme of both Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) program and stream corridor restoration. ITAM is the Army's strategy for focusing on sustained use of training and testing lands. Cross-program innovation and field-tested stream restoration methods can combine to provide greater sustainability for Department of Defense maneuver areas and ranges over both the short and long term.

Environmental impacts of peacetime military training are under heightened scrutiny by outspoken publics all over the world. Public environmental concerns are increasingly linked to sociocultural well-being and economic vitality in affected communities. Demonstrating leadership in environmental stewardship in this broader community context is essential for the military to ensure continuing public support of its mission in a post-Cold War era. Federal land management agencies are mandated to follow an ecosystem approach to resource management, such as a watershed approach to Clean Water Act compliance. This provides promising opportunities for military installations to link peacetime activities with host community well-being. The transdisciplinary basis and policy frameworks for this approach are reviewed. Examples from Marine Corps Base Hawaii are described. Use of this approach by other resource management agencies facing similar challenges is encouraged.

Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 included significant compliance provisions for facilities to manage chemical process risk. The regulation promulgated by EPA, commonly referred to as the “Risk Management Plan” rule, will require a substantial fiscal, experiential, and human resource investment for installations that are required to comply. Primarily, most military installations that have to comply will do so for water disinfection or propane storage. In addition to regulatory liability, Section 112(r) rules also have a significant public affairs and facility security aspect. This article reviews the regulation to point out compliance challenges and presents methods for reducing or eliminating the need to be subject to the rule by employing safer, smarter business practices.

This article discusses environmental technology developments in the Department of Defense (DOD) and how the use of innovative technologies can substantially reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of DOD environmental programs. DOD's overall strategy for environmental technology is to identify and establish priorities among users' needs and to implement environmental solutions through the development of technologies and their subsequent transfer to the user community. The authors examine the oversight and management of the Environmental Technology Development Process (ETDP) and the roles of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDRE) and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security (DUSD(ES)). The respective roles of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, and supporting efforts by the military components are reviewed. The authors also highlight a number of promising environmental technology initiatives and their potential benefits to DOD. The article concludes with a discussion of DOD technology transfer efforts and the mechanisms being used for the collection and dissemination of data on technology availability and performance—including relevant Web site and Internet addresses.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in DOE v. Ohio, 112 S.Ct. 1627 (1992) that both the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) did not provide an explicit waiver of sovereign immunity which would allow enforcement of punitive fines and penalties (for past violations) against federal facilities. In response to this decision, Congress, in 1992, passed the Federal Facility Compliance Act (FFCA). This law amended RCRA to provide an explicit waiver of sovereign immunity. Members of Congress have expressed interest in amending the CWA to provide a similar waiver of sovereign immunity.

This article discusses the arguments for and against including an FFCA-type waiver of sovereign immunity in the CWA. On its face, such a waiver would appear to be an attractive way to increase federal compliance with the CWA. However, it should not be assumed that such a waiver would increase CWA compliance in the same manner the FFCA has increased RCRA compliance. The article concludes that the best approach would be to provide a limited waiver of sovereign immunity for CWA violations. This limited waiver would allow punitive penalty enforcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against federal agencies (even in those states that have state-run programs), but maintain the prohibition against state enforcement. This type of waiver would provide the benefits of punitive penalty enforcement, while protecting federal prerogatives from the vagaries of state enforcement actions.