[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TIME BOMBS TICKING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. We have a lot of controversies here in Washington, 
D.C. There's even controversy over whether some of us should be 
legislators or communicators. But there's one area that we all can be 
policymakers, come together, make the economy stronger, and improve the 
quality of life for all Americans.
  In every congressional office there's a copy of the Congressional 
Quarterly Weekly. The current issue on page 656 has an article about 
the EPA dealing with the Pentagon pollution. I invite every Member, 
every legislative director, every staff member who's responsible for 
dealing with defense or dealing with the environment to pick up this 
article and read the two pages.
  It illustrates a bigger issue here--not just a dustup in the last 
administration between EPA and the Department of Defense--but the role 
that we will all play with thousands of time bombs literally ticking in 
every State and most of our congressional districts.
  It's embarrassing that we still have almost 10,000 toxic sites with 
unexploded ordnance and military toxin scattered in every State of the 
Union, and 3,449 of these sites are Superfund sites. Amazingly, 2,600 
of them are formerly used defense sites that, at the current rate--
these are bases that have been closed--at the current rate, it will 
take more than half a century to get rid of these dangerous elements 
and return the land to productive use.
  This is not just a serious problem for every State and almost every 
community. First and foremost, it is a danger to our military, to their 
families, and to their neighbors, having these toxic and unexploded 
ordnance lying around. It also is a serious problem for military 
readiness.
  One of the reasons that States and local governments are resisting 
the expanding training footprint that our military needs today is 
because we, the federal government hasn't been a very good neighbor. 
People don't know how long they are going to be left with a landscape 
that is littered with explosives and toxic substances.
  Three times since I have been in Congress, we have had to pull forest 
firefighters out of raging flames in the forests because bombs were 
exploding because past military training had left shells behind. 
There's a subdivision in Pennsylvania on a former military site that 
does not have fire service because they're afraid that the heat from a 
fire will explode a bomb.
  This is a problem of military readiness now. It's also an 
opportunity--if we solve this problem--with the techniques and 
technology that will help us determine whether it's a 105-millimeter 
shell or it's a hub cab, can also be used to make our soldiers safer 
overseas from improvised explosive devices. It will save money in the 
long run because as these shells and contaminants break down and leach 
into the groundwater, it will be more expensive to solve the dangerous 
pollution in the future.
  It's not just a problem of the Department of Defense and the Pentagon 
and administrations past and present--it's a problem for Congress. We 
have been missing in action. It's time for us to put a reasonable 
amount of money in cleaning up these Superfund sites and getting rid of 
the unexploded ordnance.
  I don't want to read another story of where there are children, like 
those in San Diego, who found a bomb playing in a field behind their 
subdivision. It exploded killing two of them. News accounts of a bomb 
washing up on a beach in Florida or explosives discovered near a school 
are stories that we don't want to hear again.
  It's past time that we own up to our responsibilities, that we solve 
the problem that will help military readiness today, technology that 
will save the lives of our servicemembers overseas, make our 
servicemembers at home and their families and the people who work with 
them safer, and meet our responsibilities to the environment. Oh, by 
the way. We will put tens of thousands of people to work cleaning up 
land and returning it to productive capacity all across America.
  It's time that Congress is no longer missing in action in this 
serious problem of military contamination. Look at the Congressional 
Quarterly Weekly that is on your desk, page 656. Thank you.

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