Maryland?s top lawmakers are calling for a congressional hearing on why the military and the federal environmental agency cannot agree on how to clean up contamination and unexploded bombs at Fort Meade.
“We want to put the Department of Defense on the record to make sure they are complying with the requirement of community health standards,” Sen. Ben Cardin told The Examiner on Tuesday in a phone interview while on a tour of Kazakhstan.
Cardin and Sen. Barbara Mikulski were granted a Senate oversight panel to investigate why the Defense Department, particularly the Army, will not comply with an August Environmental Protection Agency order on how to clean up three military installations, including Fort Meade in Anne Arundel.
Fort Meade was placed on a national hazardous waste site list, known as the Superfund, in 1998.
The Army so far has spent $83 million to clean up 33 of the 51 contaminated sites at Fort Meade. Another $25 million has been pledged, said Tad Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army.
Col. Kenneth McCreedy, fort commander, told The Examiner in February that the EPA is complicating the effort by adding more bureaucracy.
“We know there is contamination in the soil, and there are still unexploded ordnance as well,” Davis said in an interview Tuesday.
“But there is no imminent danger on the installation or nearby.”
The EPA said it doesn?t comment on investigations.
“[The] EPA remains committed to [working] with all federal agencies to ensure compliance with the nation?s cleanup laws,” EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith said in an e-mail.
But local environmentalists are concerned about a pattern of disregard for the environment, as the Army ignored a request in 2007 from the Department of the Interior not to build two golf courses that would wipe out 300 acres of forest on fort property.
“I dorecall them being able to expedite moving on those golf courses. If Fort Meade can effectively do that, we could focus that energy for more attention on fixing what is obviously a seriously potential problem,” said David Prosten, president of the Anne Arundel Sierra Club.
While Congress cannot direct the Army to follow the EPA order, “we can put a spotlight on this and hopefully … spark change,” Cardin said.
“If not, we?ll look into other actions.”
