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R. Michael Turnipseed, Director Allen Biaggi, Administrator (775) 687-4670 TDD 687-4678
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STATE OF NEVADA KENNY C. GUINN Governor 
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Waste Management Corrective Actions Federal Facilities Facsimile 687-6396
Air Quality |
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Division of Environmental Protection 333 W. Nye Lane, Room 138 Carson City, Nevada 89706-0851 |
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Delwyn R. EulBerg, Colonel 99 ABW/CC 4430 Grissom Ave. Ste. 110 Nellis AFB, NV 89191-6520 Roy Rogers, Captain U.S. Navy Naval Air Station, Fallon Fallon Nevada Re: Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1999 Dear Colonel EulBerg: The Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1999, which was part of the FFY2000 National Defense Authorization Act, renewed the withdrawal of over 3 million acres of public land in Nevada. Under the Act, the withdrawn lands will continue to be used by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force for defense training activities (e.g., air to air combat, air to ground gunnery, special forces training, etc.). By carrying out the mission requirements of conducting military training activities, portions of the withdrawn lands have been and will continue to be contaminated with explosive, toxic, or hazardous materials. To address management of these contaminated lands, section 3017 of the Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1999 details specific reporting requirements for the "Ongoing Decontamination" of these lands. Specifically, the legislation requires the preparation of a report by each service to be submitted by the Secretary of the Navy and Air Force to selected House and Senate committees detailing ongoing and future decontamination activities. Under the Act, these decontamination reports must contain the following types of information: 1) The amount of funds appropriated and obligated or expended for decontamination of such lands; 2) The methods used to decontaminate withdrawn lands; 3) The amounts and types of decontaminates removed from such lands; 4) the types and amounts of residual contamination; and 5) the estimated costs for full decontamination of such lands and the time to complete such decontamination. During the past two meetings of the Joint Military Affairs Committee (JMAC) and during the last meeting of the Nevada DoD Environmental Managers' and Attorneys' Forum, staff from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) raised several questions relating to the development of these reports, which are required under both the existing and the previous land withdrawal Acts. Specifically, questions remain concerning the delineation of residual contamination, and time frames and estimated costs for full decontamination (items 4 & 5 above). In addition to contamination left by the services, there also exists contamination from other federal entities who have been authorized to conduct activities as tenants on these lands. This contamination also needs to be addressed in the required reports. NDEP believes these are important questions that need to be answered to support long-term stewardship alternatives (i.e., land use restrictions & institutional controls) of the withdrawn lands in the event the land withdrawals are not renewed. Accordingly, in order to gain a historic perspective and the baseline from which future reports will be developed, we are requesting a copy of the decontamination reports that were submitted over the last decade under Section 7 of the Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1986. In addition, NDEP is requesting one copy of the annual decontamination report(s) required under the Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1999 upon its submittal to Congress.
PJL/JBW/js cc: Allen Biaggi, NDEP Heather Elliot, State Clearinghouse Pam Wilcox, Division of State Lands Kathy Carlson, DOE Elsie Munsell, U.S. Navy T. McCall, US Air Force 
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