Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, October 4, 2007
As soon as I published yesterdays article I checked my inbox and found something quite interesting coming from our friends over at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). PEER is about Protecting Employees Who Protect Our Environment.
The title of the news release: PLANNED ARMY EXPANSION WILL INCREASE POLLUTION.
Army expansion? The U.S. Army calls it “force structure modifications”. At least that’s the working title for their ‘environmental impact statement’. The Army foresees this expansion as causing “high” to “very high” adverse effects on air pollution, soil erosion, water usage, energy consumption and a threat to wildlife, noise, air and surface traffic. In the cases where impact is “very high” there is no way to mitigate the impact.
The US Army has no legal obligation to minimize its impact on global warming. In essence though, the Army is an inextricable part of the government, and the government of the U.S. is of, for, and by the people; At least it is supposed to be.
The land the Army has already recently expanded Ft. Irwin in Southern California for larger tank training activities laying waste to even more soil. An oxymoron; destroying American soil, to defend American soil?
The draft for the Army plan (two words I don’t like to see together) includes adding approximately 30,000 combat support troops and adding up to six active duty combat brigades! 
Yikes. No small feat. They plan to expand 17 bases, by at least 1,000 more soldiers; 11 of which are west of the Mississippi.
Of those 11, perhaps most interesting is, these expansions are planned for bases located in the desert and fall south latitudinaly of America’s infamous Mason Dixon Line except for Yakima Training Center, Washington State.
Will the Mason Dixon Line once again represent conflict and the worst of times for America?
Most disturbing The U.S. Army repealed the federal regulations governing the Army’s impact on air, water and toxic waste pollution. The Army is left with only internal guidelines, which cannot be enforced.
In a July 20, 2007 Federal Register notice, the Army declares that environmental regulations governing the service are repealed effective immediately, offering the following cryptic yet obtuse rationale:
“The Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management…has concluded this regulation is obsolete. This regulation has been extensively revised and has been determined that the procedures prescribed in the regulation are for Army officials, and not intended to be enforced against any member of the public. As a result, the regulation does not affect the general public. Therefore, it would be helpful in avoiding confusion if 32 CFR Part 650 is removed.”
The message is yes, we want to avoid any confusion by informing the citizens, so we’ll help ourselves out here and just remove our need to tell them anything. Helpful indeed.
PEER Executive Director, Jeff Ruch “Incredibly, the Army contends that this does ‘not affect the general public’ and therefore the public will have no say in what anti-pollution rules the Army must follow.”
Not only is war bad for the environment, training for war is too. The fox is once again guarding the chicken coop.
Photo Thanks: NPS.gov, The Guttenberg Project
Labels: Army Expansion, Environment, Global Warming, Pollution, Public right, Toxin
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
U.S. Army Expansion Planned. Bad News for the Environment
