[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 93 (Thursday, June 11, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2016

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. JOHN KLINE

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 10, 2015

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2685) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes:

  Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment aiming 
to expedite cleanup within a neglected category of defense sites in my 
state and nationwide.
  During World War II, while our troops were fighting abroad, 
facilities across the nation here at home were busy creating the 
supplies and provisions that fueled our efforts. One such site is 
Gopher Ordnance Works in my district. The Gopher Ordnance Works site 
was built and operated by the federal government during World War II 
for the production of smokeless gunpowder and nitric and sulfuric 
acids. The then-existing War Department acquired approximately 12,000 
acres of farmland near Rosemount, Minnesota for the construction of the 
plant. After the war was won and the efforts at home wound down, the 
Department of the Army declared the Gopher Ordnance Works to be surplus 
property, and the facilities on the land were partially deconstructed. 
Unfortunately, some of the structures and many of the contaminants 
remain to this very day, more than 60 years later.
  Over the years the federal government realized sites like Gopher 
Ordnance Works must be cleaned up. Accordingly, Congress created the 
Formerly Used Defense Sites--or FUDS--program as part of the Defense 
Environmental Restoration Program in the mid-1980s. The goal of the 
FUDS program is to clean up these sites so they can be put back into 
productive use and no longer pose a potential health threat to our 
constituents.
  Mr. Chair, the site in my district is not unique. The U.S. Army Corps 
of Engineers maintains an inventory of FUDS properties nationwide, and 
per the Army Corps, there are almost 10,000 potential properties that 
could qualify, with up to 2,700 of those requiring some sort of 
cleanup. Every single state in our nation, the District of Columbia, 
and our territories all have sites within their respective borders. 
This issue affects all of our constituents.
  It is unacceptable to take so long to make so little progress in 
addressing these sites. It is worse if the cleanup delay is due to 
legal disputes over FUDS properties or simple lack of knowledge about 
what contaminants are present. This is the case in one subset of the 
FUDS program categorized as Potentially Responsible Party--or PRP--
sites. PRP sites are locations where the Department of Defense as well 
as other parties potentially contributed to the contamination. Instead 
of acting on these sites and putting them back into productive use, PRP 
sites get mired in extensive site studies and disputes over who left 
what at the site.
  Mr. Chair, Gopher Ordnance Works in my district is a PRP site that 
has not received appropriate attention from the federal agencies 
delegated with the authority to resolve liability and move forward with 
cleanup. For more than a decade, I have advocated tirelessly to the 
Army Corps in an attempt to facilitate cleanup and navigate its 
backlogged bureaucracy. Enough is enough. I am asking the Army Corps to 
prioritize PRP sites and move forward expeditiously toward a solution 
for environmental investigation and pollution cleanup costs at Gopher 
Ordnance Works. I am here, ready, and available to offer what 
assistance is necessary in Congress on behalf of my constituents. I 
expect the Army Corps and the Department of Defense to fulfill their 
mission, committing to their responsibilities toward real, productive 
solutions.
  The underlying bill funds environmental restoration for all FUDS 
properties. My amendment would have required no less than $10,000,000 
of the Environmental Restoration--Formerly Used Defense Sites funds to 
be available for remedial investigations on the too often neglected PRP 
sites, removing one obstacle that is preventing these sites from 
becoming usable.
  While it is regrettable the House Parliamentarians ruled that 
procedures and protocols of the House prevent this particular bill from 
being a vehicle to fix this problem, I will continue my efforts so 
these sites can finally be cleaned and restored, resolving this issue 
once and for all in support of our communities.

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