Arming the Department of Defense’s Environmental Liabilities Program
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By Christy Foran & R. J. Briggs , Kristin Van Abel
June 23, 2021
Arming the Department of Defense’s Environmental Liabilities Program
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With a new emphasis on sustainable environmental conditions coming to the fore just as budget pressures are increasing, the Department of Defense (DoD) might want to use this renewed focus as an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to addressing its environmental liabilities.
As of 2019, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that DoD's costs associated with addressing these liabilities are $33 billion. They note that the cost of this liability ranks second only to the department's personnel benefits. The mission of DoD "is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security." The department's environmental liabilities represent risks to the health and well-being of those forces, to the communities where they live, and to the nation that they protect. To strengthen the military and support its readiness, a systematic approach could help support the assessment, monitoring, and prioritization of DoD's substantial effort to remediate its chemical hazards.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/06/23/arming_the_department_of_defenses_environmental_liabilities_program_782620.html