Military Toxic Waste:
Killing After the Wars are Over

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is the world's biggest polluter.  Virtually every American military base and nuclear arms facility, both in the U.S. and abroad, is polluted by chemicals and heavy metals used in weaponry and in maintaining military hardware, and in tropical areas even by herbicides and pesticides banned in the U.S.

DOD generates 750,000 tons of hazardous waste a year, more than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined.  It claims to know of 14,401 probable "hot spots" at 1,579 military facilities.  It is also responsible for contamination at 53 privatesites – contractor-owned weapons plants and property DOD once owned or used as dumps.

Petroleum by-products and heavy metals used in bombs and bullets are in the soil and groundwater at many bombing and target ranges.  At some sites, toxic waste and excess munitions, including unexploded bombs, have simply been buried.  Also, the military still burns munitions waste and excess fuel in open pits, because the law governing hazardous waste disposal exempts the military.

If anything, U.S. military pollution is even worse overseas.  In 1999, the DOD Inspector General reported "potentially significant liabilities" and pollution at U.S. bases in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Panama, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and other nations. In 1991, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) studied hazardous waste handling at seven of the 120 major U.S. military facilities abroad.  It found the following: Soil or water contaminated at five bases, including waste in drainage canals that lead to off-base rivers. Significant problems with waste storage at six bases, including open or leaking containers and improper container labeling and location. Improper transport methods at three bases. "Numerous incidents" of improper disposal, including unauthorized dumping, inoperable oil-water separators, discharges directly into a bay without testing or treatment, and contaminated soil that was excavated – and reburied.

The Cost of Cleaning-up

In 1990 the DOD Inspector General estimated that cleaning up U.S. bases would cost $100-$200 billion.  At $1.72 billion a year, the current rate of Pentagon spending on cleaning up its domestic mess, it could take a century to complete the task.  Unfortunately, some of the "clean-up" money is spent postponing the day of reckoningeven further by burying the problem or fencing it off for future generations to deal with.  This year the Congress further stymied progress by slashing the budget for cleaning up military bases scheduled for closing.

Sixty of the Pentagon's 66 government-owned contractor-operated sites are on the DOD's to-do list. Adding insult to injury, many defense contractors simply send their toxic clean-up bills to DOD.  One example:  the Air Force hired Hughes Aircraft to clean up groundwater the contractor poisoned in Tucson; Hughes made a profit cleaning up its own mess, even "gold-plating" the cleanup by building itself a taxpayer-paid computerized control center.

Overseas, the Pentagon plans to spend barely $16 million on base clean-ups this year.

The Sickening Effects Following are some health effects traced to soil and water contamination at or near U.S. bases: The cancer rate in Vieques, Puerto Rico, site of a large military installation and naval firing range, is estimated 27% higher than on the rest of the island. After evacuees from the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption moved to the closed Clark Air Base, a Filipino official who monitored them said they experienced "unusually high" rates of illnesses traced to poisoned well water: skin diseases mouth, nose and throat diseases kidney diseases miscarriages reproductive disorders stillbirths physical and mental birth defects cancers heart ailments leukemia Of 4,000 people living near Subic Bay, a former naval base in the Philippines, 800 were diagnosed with asbestosis.

Who Polices the Military?

Federal agencies are exempt from Clean Water Act enforcement.

The Environmental Protection Agency lacks clear authority to oversee domestic DOD practices and has no authority to police overseas facilities.

In 1999, Congress wrote into DOD's budget language that prohibits payment of environmental fines or penalties.

The Justice Department will not sue or fine federal agencies because it says the "theory of unitary executive" requires that disputes be resolved administratively.

Abroad, the regulatory landscape is even more tortured.  Bases are required to comply with host country standards (where any exist), but the 1991 GAO audit found that most of the military's environmental officials didn't know the local regulations and that, "because DOD and the services have not provided clear guidance on how U.S. and host country environmental laws apply and how they are to be incorporated
into day-to-day operations, the bases have not fully implemented either set of laws."

Concerned about secrecy, the military even refuses to admit host country environmental inspectors on its bases, and the GAO deleted base names and other specifics from its published report so host countries couldn't learn what hazards were found on their land.

The Philippines:  Worse Case Scenario Clark Air Base:  Once the largest U.S. military base in the world – about the size of Singapore – Clark was abandoned in 1991 and settled by refugees from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.  The site is currently being developed for commercial purposes with hopes of attracting foreign investors.  American firms already include Federal Express and America on Line. The Mt. Pinatubo refugees found wells poisoned by insecticides, residues of Air Force chemicals and other hazardous waste.  Pollutants include mercury, nitrates, propylbenzene (a fuel byproduct), the insecticide dieldrin, lead and coliform bacteria. Asbestos and industrial waste had been buried in landfills.  Tens of thousands of gallons of petroleum had leaked from underground tanks. Hundreds of gallons of pentachlorophenol (PC-Ps) and polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) had been spilled or dumped.  Lead and other toxic metals had been dumped in landfills.  Chemicals had been flushed into the ground during fire-fighter training.

These toxic wastes, seeping into groundwater and aquifers, lie in the heart of one of the most agriculturally rich areas of the Philippines.

Farm-raised fish and prawns and an estimated 20 percent of the nation's rice production are among the water-dependant crops raised here.  Contamination of these food supplies could lead to wide-spread health problems and massive economic and population dislocation. Subic Bay Naval Base: When the U.S. Navy abandoned its sprawling base in 1992, it identified 56 potentially contaminated sites and training ranges.  Some of the Navy's legacy: 3.75 million gallons of raw sewage pumped daily into the bay. Toxic waste from storage and destruction of excess bombs and ammunition either poured into a local stream or dumped in a landfill. Drums of cyanide emptied into a landfill, according to a worker who said he was ordered to do the dumping. Estimated cost of cleaning up both Clark and Subic Bay bases:  $1 billion.  The U.S. says its treaties with the Philippines exempt it from clean-up costs.  So far, the U.S. has even failed to respond to calls for technical assistance and more detailed documents to help the Philippines identify polluted sites.

(03/08/00)