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Witness Testimony
Mr. S. William Becker
Current Environmental Issues Affecting the Readiness of the Department of Defense
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. I am Bill Becker, Executive Director of STAPPA - the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators - and ALAPCO - the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials - the two national associations of air quality officials in 53 states and territories and over 165 major metropolitan areas across the United States. The members of STAPPA and ALAPCO have primary responsibility under the Clean Air Act for implementing our nation's air pollution control laws and regulations and, even more importantly, for achieving and sustaining clean, healthful air throughout the country. Accordingly, we are pleased to have this opportunity to provide our perspectives on proposed changes to the Clean Air Act to exempt military readiness activities of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Our associations opposed such Clean Air Act exemptions when they were proposed last year and the year before, and we oppose them just as forcefully now. Let me be clear. The issue before us is not whether state and local air agencies, or Congress, or the nation as a whole, support military readiness activities and their timely implementation - of course we do. The issue is whether additional exemptions beyond those that already exist are necessary. And STAPPA and ALAPCO believe they are not. In fact, we firmly believe the exemptions DOD seeks are not only unnecessary, but unjustified and unfair as well, and would improperly compromise the intent of the Clean Air Act and the responsibilities of state and local officials to protect public health and safeguard air quality. As we discuss the proposed amendments and their impact, it is important to do so in the appropriate context. Perhaps the most complex air quality problem our nation faces is achievement and maintenance of the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Notwithstanding decades of diligent effort, at least 160 million Americans still live in areas with unhealthful air quality. One week ago, EPA designated 125 metropolitan areas (covering 474 counties) throughout the country as nonattainment for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS. The health and environmental impacts associated with elevated levels of ozone are serious, including aggravation of asthma and chronic lung disease, permanent lung damage, reduced lung function, irritation of the respiratory system and cardiovascular symptoms. Although even healthy individuals can be at risk from exposure to elevated levels of ozone, children, seniors and those with compromised respiratory systems are especially vulnerable. Pollution from airborne particulate matter also plagues our nation. In fact, fine particles pose the greatest health risk of any air pollutant, resulting in as many as 30,000 premature deaths each year. These fine particles are also responsible for a variety of other adverse health impacts, including aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease, damage to lung tissue, impaired breathing and respiratory symptoms, irregular heart beat, heart attacks and lung cancer. Nearly 60 areas of the country continue to violate the PM10 standard. Moreover, based on preliminary data, it appears that PM2.5 concentrations in as many as 145 counties across the nation exceed the health-based standard. In addition, at least a dozen areas of the country experience unacceptable levels of carbon monoxide, which can affect the central nervous system and poses a special risk to those with heart disease. The Clean Air Act amendments DOD proposes would exacerbate these air quality problems. These amendments would exempt DOD from statutory requirements that currently hold the military, like all other sources of air pollution, accountable for its emissions. Specifically, emissions caused by military readiness activities conducted in areas with air quality that does not meet federal health-based standards would be exempt from the "general conformity" provisions of the Act, which require that such emissions conform to the State Implementation Plans designed to meet the health-based air quality standards. These exemptions would allow military readiness activities - alone among the activities that state and local air pollution control agencies regulate - to cause or contribute to violations of the NAAQS, increase the frequency or severity of such violations or delay timely attainment of the standards or interim milestones. Further, the amendments would require EPA to approve an area as being in attainment with the ozone, carbon monoxide and PM10 air quality standards - even when the area, in fact, is not in attainment - if the area would be in attainment but for air pollution from military readiness activities. Notwithstanding DOD's persistence in seeking exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Department has not backed up its request with a single example of a military readiness activity that has been prevented or delayed due to general conformity requirements. In fact, general conformity compliance and military readiness have peacefully coexisted and there is no evidence to suggest that successful achievement of these dual purposes will not continue. Further, although there has yet to be an instance where flexibility to deviate from law or regulation was necessary for the purposes of timely military readiness, if one were to arise, both the Clean Air Act and the federal regulations implementing the statute's general conformity provisions already provide DOD ample flexibility to carry out its duties as necessary. Under Section 118(b) of the Act, the President may exempt DOD from any requirements of the statute upon finding that it is in the "paramount interest of the United States to do so." Further, under the general conformity regulations, which apply only if emissions are above a specified de minimus level, DOD is allowed to suspend compliance in the case of emergencies - which, by definition, include terrorist activities and military mobilizations - and also to conduct routine movement of material, personnel and mobile assets, such as ships and aircraft, provided no new support facilities are constructed. However, the statutory amendments proposed by DOD would create a blanket exemption for military readiness activities, allowing them to avoid compliance for three years, irrespective of the need for an exemption or the impact on air quality and public health. As a result, the military would circumvent the process to which all other sources of pollution are subject and would only be required to begin taking responsibility for its emissions if the exempted activity is still occurring after three years. Although DOD has asserted that the emissions associated with military readiness activities are minor - on the order of one-half of 1 percent of an area's overall emissions inventory - we note two critical points. First, the amendments proposed by the Department place no limit on emissions to result from an exempted activity. Second, and more importantly, areas with unhealthful air do not have the luxury of overlooking any amount of pollution, let alone the unchecked level of emissions that would be allowed under the proposed amendments. Under the Clean Air Act, states are responsible for developing State Implementation Plans - or SIPs - for areas that violate air quality standards. A SIP must contain a detailed blueprint of how a nonattainment area will achieve the standard by the applicable deadline, including an inventory of all emission sources in the area, a breakdown of the level of emissions from each and a specification of the control measures to be implemented. A critical element of the SIP is the emissions budget, which is the amount of air pollution an area can accommodate and still meet the health-based air quality standard. This budget is divided among all sources in the area, which must then operate so that their respective emissions remain within their allotment of the budget. Allowing the military to unilaterally decide that its emissions need not remain within its allotted budget will result in excess emissions and unhealthy air. Our associations find this unacceptable to public health and unfair to other regulated sources. The only remedy DOD has offered in return for creating excess emissions without justification is to simply ignore the emissions and declare the air clean, even though it is not. Such an approach wholly undermines the integrity of the nation's health-based air quality standards and the ability of state and local air pollution control agencies to achieve clean air goals. Because state and local air agencies will still feel the responsibility to deliver truly healthful air to the public they serve, they will have no choice but to return to other sectors and ask for additional reductions in order to make up for the excess emissions from military facilities. Our associations fully recognize that under certain circumstances DOD legitimately must be able to take immediate action for the purposes of military readiness, with no time for environmental compliance. Current statutory and regulatory flexibilities already provide for such action to take place unencumbered. The Clean Air Act exemptions sought by DOD, however, go far beyond what is necessary for military readiness and, instead, provide free, three-year passes for military activities to pollute at the expense of air quality, unnecessarily placing at risk the health of those who live and work on, near or downwind of military bases. In the clear absence of even one instance in which general conformity requirements under the Clean Air Act have in any way impeded military readiness, STAPPA and ALAPCO respectfully urge Congress to reject DOD's proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act and to urge the military, like all other sources of emissions, to take responsibility for the pollution it creates and do its fair share to clean up our nation's air. Thank you. Related Documents |
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