Pentagon at loggerheads with Environment Protection Agency over pollution

The most ironical aspect of the pollution in many countries is that the government agencies themselves are involved in many occasions and they simply refuse to accept the responsibility citing various excuses. This time it is none other than the Pentagon itself which is facing the ire of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States. The Superfund program was initiated by the congress in 1980 to clean up certain critically polluted sites and the Pentagon actually owned a bulk of them. But while other federal agencies like NASA and the nuclear department have agreed to the terms readily, Pentagon has always created obstacles. This time round they are supposed to clean up several of their military bases which are threatening public health by polluting the drinking water and soil also.

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The threat comes from the lethal chemicals that are dumped in those bases. Some of these toxic chemicals can even cause cancer and several other health problems. In fact there are several other such bases yet to be considered and it might take billions of dollars and decades of effort to clean them up completely.

The EPA has a final weapon to force Pentagon. It is authorized to have the final say and impose fines on non complying agencies and that seems to be the only solution remaining now. The Pentagon, given its importance in national security, is trying to throw around its weight and avoid the clean up. It has failed to understand how far reaching the consequences can be and just looking at the monetary aspect. It might be having a tacit understanding with the superior administration riding on which it is refusing to sign the legitimate agreement, but it would definitely realize the costs of this mistake after a few years!

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Source: MSNBC