[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5326]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                UNEXPLODED ORDNANCES ARE SERIOUS PROBLEM

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I have just returned from the campus of 
American University in the exclusive Spring Valley residential 
community here in Washington, D.C.
  From a distance one could not imagine, but it is actually one of over 
a thousand sites around the country where war is being continued; 26 
years after the Vietnam War, 56 years after the conclusion of World War 
II, 83 years after World War I, there is still a battle taking place 
right here on American soil. It involves mines, nerve gases, and toxics 
and explosive shells. It has claimed at least 65 lives, and has maimed 
and injured many more. Sadly, it continues every day, and if we are not 
careful, it will continue for another thousand years.
  Toxic explosive waste of our military activities in the United 
States, unexploded ordnances on formerly used defense installations 
probably contaminates 20 to 25 million acres in the United States, and 
the number could be as high as 50 million acres. Sadly, no one can give 
us an accurate appraisal of the problem. What we do know is at the 
current rate of spending, it will take centuries, maybe even a thousand 
years or more, to return this land to safe and productive use. Some may 
be so damaged, we may not attempt to clean it up.
  Unexploded ordnances are a serious problem today. Human activity and 
wildlife are encroaching on more and more of these sites as our 
neighborhoods grow and sprawl. At the same time, the natural rhythms of 
nature, flooding, earthquakes, and landslides, aided and abetted by 
human activity, exposes these dangers. Today, across America, we are 
finding lost and forgotten unexploded ordnance that was intentionally 
buried in a feeble attempt to dispose of it, or a shell that missed its 
mark and did not explode as intended.
  There are many targets toward which citizens can direct their 
frustrations and in some cases anger: the Department of Defense, the 
Army Corps of Engineers or EPA. People have some legitimate concerns 
about what these and other agencies have done in the past and what they 
are doing now. But there is one participant that is missing in action, 
and that is the United States Congress. Only we in Congress can set 
adequate funding levels, budget clearly, and then make sure that enough 
money is appropriated to do the job right. Congress can pinpoint 
managerial responsibility and establish the rules of the game.
  It is not acceptable to me for Congress to occasionally step in from 
the sidelines, complain, protest, and then shift inadequate funding 
from one high-priority project to another high-priority project. This 
ability to find an unexploded ordnance, decontaminate sites and have 
the infrastructure is going to be a zero-sum game if we do not properly 
advance the goal of protection.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress needs to report for duty, and needs to provide 
the administrative and financial tools that are necessary. What I am 
talking about will not affect active ranges and readiness. That is a 
separate topic with its own set of issues. My concern is the closed, 
transferred and transferring ranges where the public is exposed or soon 
will be.
  More than 1,000 years to clean up these sites is not an appropriate 
timetable when people are at risk every day. In the 1980s, three boys 
in San Diego were playing in a field next to a subdivision that they 
lived in, and they found a shell. It exploded and killed two of them. 
American University campus that I just left has a child care center 
that is now closed down because of high levels of arsenic contamination 
because this area during World War I was a test ground for poison and 
chemical warfare.
  Mr. Speaker, we must make sure that whether it is in suburban 
Washington, D.C., on Martha's Vineyard or in Camp Bonneville in my 
community that we get the job done, and it is not appropriate to take a 
millennium or even a century to do it. We need to step up and do the 
job.
  Mr. Speaker, my goal in Congress is to make sure that every Member 
understands what is going on in their State because there are these 
toxic waste dumps, chemical and weapons disposal in every State. We can 
make sure that somebody is in charge, that there is enough funding, and 
we get the job done so that no child will be at risk for death, 
dismemberment or serious illness as a result of the United States 
Government not cleaning up after itself.

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