On October 5, 2009, the CEO of our Country, President Obama, signed an aggressive environmental Executive Order (EO) focused on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, establishing a strategy of sustainability for Federal agencies.
The EO focuses on green house gas emissions, water management; waste elimination, recycling and pollution prevention, and to “leverage agency acquisitions to foster markets for sustainable and environmentally preferable materials, products and services.”
My focus on the EO is to support its strategy of pollution prevention by eliminating asbestos waste from our environment.
Asbestos was mandated for use in every branch of the military from shipyards, where over 300 asbestos products were utilized, to munitions and in multitudes of building materials. Examples: the Defense Logistic Agency stored thousands of tons of raw asbestos in silos around the country for emergency use, and when built, the Pentagon was infused with 140,000 tons of asbestos containing materials, only to be removed and sent to a landfill for storage during the recent Pentagon renovation project.
As a result of government asbestos use, statistics reveal that more than 30% of Americans with mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos during military service or while working on government facilities.
Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation Act (CERCLA), revised to Superfund, prohibitions and requirements were set for closed and abandoned contaminated sites as well as the liability of individuals and businesses responsible for contamination. CERCLA directly addresses Federal Facilities, stating that each department, agency, and instrumentality of the United States
Private industry and government agencies designated as a personal responsible party (PRP) under CERCLA are subject to strict, joint and several perpetual liability and requires them to significantly reduce volume, mobility and toxicity of hazardous waste.
The EO takes CERCLA and Superfund to a higher level by specifically requiring Federal agencies to promote pollution prevention and eliminate waste by diverting at least 50 percent of construction and demolition materials and debris by the end of 2015.
The permeation of asbestos containing materials, when removed from a government or private facility, will cause perpetual liability for its owner when stored in a landfill.
The ABCOV® process is presently the only Federal EPA approved, non-thermal, simple chemical physical process that destroys all 6 asbestos forms in asbestos containing materials (ACM) on site, preventing trucking through neighborhoods, and most importantly, preventing future asbestos liability.
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), Military base landfill clean-up mandated by EPA, and bases that are superfund sites, all contain asbestos.
Just think about who pays when industry is environmentally lax: stockholders, employees and customers. This liability is isolated to the related company, if the asbestos liability does not cause bankruptcy. Who pays for bankruptcy of the company – The Taxpayer!
Now just think about who pays when the government does not implement the EO as stated and at the same time enforce the CERCLA regulation? – The Taxpayer!
We would like you to share your thoughts on the above.
We look forward to conversing with you.
