Environmental Protection: Status of Defense Initiatives for Cleanup, Technology, and Compliance
NSIAD-97-126
Published: May 29, 1997. Publicly Released: Jun 30, 1997.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed selected aspects of the Department of Defense's (DOD) environmental mission, focusing on: (1) the time lag between obligations and expenditures for environmental cleanup and its impact on achieving actual cleanup; (2) the basis for funding overseas cleanup; (3) DOD's proposal to enter into multistate cooperative agreements for technology certification; and (4) DOD's need for and efforts toward uniform tracking and management of programs involving compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Congress may wish to consider requiring DOD to issue guidance for environmental compliance funding. As stated in GAO recommendations, the guidance should address: (1) the milestones and time frames needed for obtaining environmental compliance funding estimates, obligations, and expenditures, including project-level data; and (2) changes to DOD's compliance class definitions that are more consistent with governmentwide reporting to EPA. |
Closed – Implemented
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The Senate Armed Services Committee report on the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Report 105-29, June 17, 1997) directed DOD to clarify the Class I and II definitions and to eliminate the overlap. The House National Security Committee report on the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Report 105-32, June 16, 1997) directed DOD to develop standardized data on such things as contracts, projects and installations to permit the tracking of compliance funding from budget request to expenditure. |
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force to establish milestones and time frames for providing environmental compliance funding estimates, obligations, and expenditures, including data at the project level. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD officials have identified appropriation type and environmental area (e.g., compliance or pollution prevention) in the fiscal year 1996 annual environmental quality report to Congress. DOD has stated that its regulation 7000.14R (the financial management regulation) requires more thorough documentation of environmental compliance budget data than ever before, including prior-year execution data at the summary level. Milestones for that data are provided in annual comptroller guidance to the components. In addition, the Environmental Security staff is working with the components to improve the timeliness of the annual environmental quality report to Congress, which supplements the President's budget submission.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security to reconsider changes in compliance class definitions so that the data permit better oversight and are more consistent with governmentwide reporting to EPA. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD made minor modifications to its compliance class definitions, but the definitions are still too broad to make meaningful funding decisions, and there is still potential for overlap when defining the different project types. For example, under EPA's definition a class I project is out of compliance. Under DOD's definition, a project could be classified as class I even if it is not out of compliance for 2 or more years.
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Topics
Cooperative agreementsDefense budgetsEnvironmental lawEnvironmental monitoringstate relationsHazardous substancesInternational relationsMilitary facilitiesObligated budget balancesWaste disposalEnvironmental cleanups