KMAX: News of the West

Whitman: EPA 'comfortable' with military environmental exceptions

By ANDREW BRIDGES
AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman said Wednesday her agency was ``very comfortable'' with legislation sought by the Pentagon that would exempt it from a broad range of environmental laws.

The Pentagon, supported by the Bush administration, want laws governing endangered species, marine mammals, air and water quality and the cleanup of explosives and munitions eased at defense facilities around the nation.

In seeking the exemptions outlined in the Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative, the Department of Defense claims that the need to adhere to environmental laws crimps military training and preparedness.

The Pentagon sent the proposed legislation to Capitol Hill last year and further outlined it in hearings held earlier this month.

Whitman said the EPA has worked closely with the Pentagon and is confident the proposed exemptions still give her agency the latitude to intervene when military training might pose a health or environmental threat.

``We are very comfortable with the language,'' Whitman said after an address to Town Hall Los Angeles, a nonpartisan forum. ``We believe we will still have the ability to be proactive in protecting the public's health and the environment while still allowing the military to do the work they need to do.''

Her answer came in reply to a question from Hacienda Heights high school senior Andrea Chang, 18.

``It was the answer I kind of expected. She is in the Bush administration,'' Chang said later.

Environmentalists echoed that sentiment.

``(Whitman) works for the most anti-environmental president in history. He is her boss and it's pure politics. I think she is trying to toe the administration line: 'My boss wants this and we don't have a problem with it,''' said Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist with the Idyllwild-based Center for Biological Diversity.

The California EPA, a state agency, worries the proposed legislation could hinder its efforts to regulate and clean up defense training and industrial sites around the state.

``I am concerned that (the Pentagon's) proposal could lead to an open-ended inclusion of environmentally damaging activities under the umbrella of 'readiness,''' Edwin Lowry, director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, a California EPA department, said March 13 in Senate testimony.

``Obviously, we understand and fully support the need of the armed forces to do their job, but we do not believe that the Pentagon should take advantage of an situation to try to break down safeguards, which protect not only the environment but the health and safety of Americans,'' California EPA spokesman William Rukeyser said.

Whitman downplayed those concerns.

``If a site is contaminated, we will work with the military to clean it up to the standards we hold today. There is no effort on the part of the administration to lower standards,'' Whitman said.

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