Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler is pushing the Pentagon to do the right thing - obey the law and comply with an Environmental Protection Agency order that it quickly complete a cleanup of serious pollution at Fort Meade. He's threatening to sue if the Army fails to act. The Pentagon's assurance that public health and safety are not imperiled as it cleans up the Superfund site at its own pace and with its own priorities is not credible.
The EPA issued the Fort Meade cleanup order last year because it was worried about drinking water and soil contamination from past dumping at the Anne Arundel County base. Contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, explosives and arsenic have polluted soil and groundwater, according to EPA reports.
The Pentagon has agreed to sign EPA orders involving other military sites, but it disagrees with details of the Fort Meade order, including timing and the areas to be cleared. Defense Department officials insist there is no danger to the drinking water at Fort Meade. But the polluter doesn't get to make its own assessment of the danger and decide independently how the cleanup should be done. As Democratic Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees environmental issues, rightly put it: "In this case, we have DOD seeking to self-regulate, contrary to the law and the clear intent of Congress."
