1.Decontamination and use of
former bombardment area on island of Culebra
(a)Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, is located
approximately 17 miles from the east coast of Puerto Rico’s main island, and
the Navy conducted ship-to-shore bombing exercises and other live-fire training
activities for over 70 years in unpopulated areas of Culebra and its
surrounding waters.
(2)In 1975, Congress
required the Navy to close its operations on Culebra in response to
long-standing concerns among the residents about safety, health, and
environmental risks. The Navy moved its operations to nearby training
facilities on Vieques Island, which were closed in 2003 due to similar
concerns.
(3)Although the
Navy’s facilities on Culebra closed in 1975, the Department of Defense did not
begin to address the cleanup of these areas until Congress enacted specific
authorities for the cleanup of former United States military sites in section
211 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (Public Law
99–499). With these authorities, the Army Corps of Engineers added Culebra to
the Formerly Used Defense Sites Program in 1991, and for several years
thereafter, performed relatively limited cleanup of unexploded ordnance from
the surface.
(4)In
2003, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Sila M. Calderón, requested that the
Environmental Protection Agency add both Culebra and Vieques to the National
Priorities List of the most hazardous sites. In 2005, the Environmental
Protection Agency added Vieques to the National Priorities List, but delayed
its listing decision for Culebra. Instead, Puerto Rico and the Army Corps of
Engineers decided to address the cleanup of Culebra under a separate agreement,
under which the Army Corps of Engineers has begun to plan a more comprehensive
removal of unexploded ordnance on Culebra.
(5)The Army Corps of
Engineers had spent $11,100,000 as of the end of fiscal year 2007 on the
cleanup of Culebra and estimated that another $92,600,000 would be needed to
complete planned cleanup actions. These amounts pale in comparison to the
$77,600,000 the Navy has already spent, and the $253,100,000 the Navy plans to
spend in the future, to complete the cleanup of Vieques.
(6)The more limited
scope of the cleanup on Culebra has become a rising issue. The greater funding
for Vieques is not based on differing conditions on the islands. Both were used
for the same types of training exercises for several decades and are likely to
contain similar hazards.
(7)Instead, the
discrepancy is primarily attributable to the fact that certain of the most
potentially hazardous areas on Culebra, including the Northwest Peninsula and
Flamenco Beach, have been excluded from Federal cleanup plans because the Corps
of Engineers maintains that a 1974 Federal law prohibits the Army Corps of
Engineers from conducting cleanup in those areas.
(8)Section 204(c) of the Military Construction
Authorization Act, 1974 (Public Law 93–166; 87 Stat. 668) prohibited land uses
in the present
(at the time of enactment) bombardment zone on
Culebra that would require cleanup at the expense of the Federal Government.
(9)Puerto Rico
asserts that specific authorities for the cleanup of former United States
military sites enacted later by Congress in Public Law 99–499 superseded this
prohibition. Despite these later authorities, the Army Corps of Engineers
maintains that the prohibition still stands to exclude certain areas of Culebra
from Federal cleanup funds that otherwise are available to all other former
United States military sites in the 50 States and United States territories.
(10)Based on its
interpretation, the Army Corps of Engineers has not included the Northwest
Peninsula and Flamenco Beach in the scope of its cleanup plan for Culebra.
Because the Northwest Peninsula and Flamenco Beach likely contain the greatest
amounts of unexploded ordnance on Culebra, public concern has grown about the
exclusion of these areas from the cleanup effort.
(11)Section 2872 of H.R. 5658 of the 110th
Congress, as passed by the House of Representatives, would have repealed the
prohibition in the 1974 statute, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to expend
funds to address potential human health, safety, and environmental risks in the
Northwest Peninsula and Flamenco Beach.
(b)Section 204 of the Military Construction
Authorization Act, 1974 (Public Law 93–166; 87 Stat. 668) is amended by
striking subsection (c).