Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995                   TAG: 9502010022
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DIRTY DEFENSE

The Defense Monitor, a newsletter produced by the Center for Defense Information in Washington, says the Defense Department's estimate on the cleaning bill for its military bases is $25 billion to $30 billion - and rising. This is on top of the $300 billion the Department of Energy estimates it will take to clean up contamination from nuclear weapons.

Since 1984, when the DOD established a program to coordinate information and cleanup efforts, more money has gone into assessing contamination sites than into cleaning them up, unfortunately. This situation was turned around last year, and the department so far has cleaned up 571 sites.

The need has been made more urgent by the closing of military bases nationwide. As the federal government downsizes its fighting forces and closes bases, nearby localities want to lessen the economic impact by converting the sites as quickly as possible to civilian uses. Yet, the 1980 Superfund law requires the government to do whatever is necessary to "protect human health and the environment" before the land can be sold.

Private businesses and industries would hardly want it any other way. Besides unexploded ordnance, various bases are contaminated with such materials as corrosives, cyanide, dioxins, fuels, low-level nuclear waste, PCBs, solvents ... the list goes on.

The military changed its "environment-be-damned" attitude in the 1980s, and in 1990 President Bush's defense secretary, Richard Cheney, declared that its mission of defending the nation "is no excuse for ignoring the environment." Between 1987 and 1991, the services halved their annual disposal of hazardous wastes by substituting more environmentally benign materials where possible.

It has a long history of abuse, though, for which the nation must pay.

The Defense Department has increased its spending on environmental programs 260 percent since 1990, The Defense Monitor reports. In fiscal year 1995, this translates into $5.4 billion to be spent on cleanup, complying with environmental laws, preventing pollution, etc. - still less than 2.5 percent of the total military budget.

As pressure grows to cut federal spending and build up the nation's military, it will be tempting to sacrifice the services' relatively new sense of environmental responsibility. That would be a grave mistake. The military can spend money now limiting pollution, or later cleaning it up. Hazardous wastes don't just go away.