This appeal came from Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, a member of the Military Toxics Project. A similar bill was initially introduced 10 years ago, but the hostile climate during the Bush Administration made prospects for its passage dim. It attempts to hold the military accountable to the same environmental laws everyone else must abide by.
===
Dear colleagues and friends,
I’m writing to let you know that Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) has again introduced the Military Environmental Responsibility Act which will require
DOD and DOE to comply with federal and state laws intended to protect human
health and the environment.
We are circulating the following letter of support for co-signature and hope that your organization will be able to sign-on.
Please reply soon because the deadline is March 20.
Also, the bill needs co-sponsors so please contact your Congressperson and ask them to be a co-sponsor to H.R. 672.
Thank you!
Laura
March 20, 2009 (deadline)
Organizational Sign-on Letter to Support the Military Environmental Responsibility Act
For generations, unregulated military projects have placed countless communities, workers, soldiers, and families at increased risk for cancer and other deadly disease from exposure to military toxins – the hidden casualties here at home. Even as we write this letter, contamination caused by munitions production, testing, and disposal is poisoning our drinking water wells, contaminating the air we breathe, destroying our lakes, rivers,and fisheries, and polluting our soils and farmlands.
We are united in seeking to protect those most vulnerable from these harmful exposures especially the unborn, babies, youth, elders, disenfranchised communities of race, Indigenous Tribal Nations and peoples, economically disadvantaged communities, military personnel, civilian workers, military garment workers, and families living in the vicinity of military operations and installations throughout the nation.
In seeking to right these Injustices, we are joining together to support the Military Environmental Responsibility Act, H.R. 672, which will assure that the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and defense-related agencies are subject to all federal and state laws which are established to protect human health, the environment, cultural resources, workers, and public safety and will remove military exemptions from the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered
Species Act, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, CERCLA, the Oil Pollution Act, and many other important laws designed to protect human health and the environment.
TO ADD YOUR ORGANIZATION TO THIS LETTER, CONTACT:
Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand’s Bay South
Merrimac, WI 53561
(608) 643-3124
Email: info@cswab.org
DEADLINE FOR CO-SIGNATURE: Friday, March 20, 2009
ORGANIZATIONAL CO-SIGNATORS SO FAR:
Laura Olah, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Mable Mallard, Philadelphia Right To Know Committee
J. Gilbert Sanchez, Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance
Doris Bradshaw, Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee
Sparky Rodrigues, Malama Makua
Evelyn Yates, Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal
Robert Alvarado, SWU-Committee for Environmental Justice Action
Wilbur Slockish, Columbia River Education and Economic Development
Jerry Viste, Door County Environmental Council
Craig Williams, Chemical Weapons Working Group
Judy Miner, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
Al Gedicks, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Tim Lopez, Voluntary Cleanup Advisory Board
Elizabeth Crowe, Kentucky Environmental Foundation
Dvija Michael Bertish, Rosemere Neighborhood Association
Stephen M. Brittle, Don’t Waste Arizona
Jeff Ruch, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Marcia Halligan, Kickapoo Peace Circle
Don Timmerman and Roberta Thurstin Timmerman, Christian Mission of Park
Falls WI
Pamela K. Miller and Vi Waghiyi, Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Wanda Hudak, Western Broome Environmental Stakeholders Coalition
Alan Muller, Green Delaware
Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, Tewa Women United
Ben Manski, Liberty Tree
Joseph A.Gardella, Jr., Ph.D., Lake Ontario Ordnance Works Restoration
Advisory Board Steering Committee
Joseph A.Gardella, Jr., Ph.D., Buffalo Environmental Management Commission
Jill Johnston, Southwest Workers Union
Greg Wingard, Waste Action Project
Terri Swearingen, Tri-State Environmental Council
Sheri Kotowski, Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group
Jeanne Green, Code Pink Taos
Jane Harris, Oregon Center for Environmental Health
Janet Greenwald, Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping
Barb Miller, Silver Valley Community Resource Center
Jan Conley, Lake Superior Greens
Marylia Kelley,Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
(Tri-Valley CAREs)
Joan Brown, Partnership for Earth Spirituality
Debra Hall, Hopewell Junction Citizens for Clean Water
LeVonne Stone, Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network
Amanda Evans, Victims of TCE Exposure
David B. McCoy, Citizen Action New Mexico
Kent Slowinski. Environmental Health Group (former member, Spring Valley
Restoration Advisory Board)
Monica Wilson, GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/ Global
Anti-Incinerator Alliance
James Little, Western Broome Environmental Stakeholder Coalition
Margaret Griffith, Treys House San Antonio
Nadina Riggsbee, Drowning Prevention Foundation
Susan Gordon, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Betty Mekdeci, Birth Defect Research for Children
Stacey Fritz, No Nukes North
Judith Mohling, Colorado Coalition for Prevention of Nuclear War
Jim West, Citizens Research and Environmental Watch
Leeona Klippstein, Spirit of the Sage Council
Jesse N. Marquez, Coalition For A Safe Environment
Gwen Marshall, Protect Biodiversity in Public Forests
Judith Mohling, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
Tyson Miller, Green Press Initiative
Teresa Mills. Buckeye Environmental Network
James Travers, Selkirk, Coeymans, Ravena Against Pollution (SCRAP)
Julia “Judy” Bonds, Coal River Mountain Watch
Steven B. Pollack, Blue Eco Legal Council
John Blair, Valley Watch, Inc.
Carol Dwyer, Grassroots Actions for Peace, Concord MA
Connie Hanson, Christians Caring for Creation
Aileen Suzara and Lizelle Festejo, Filipino/American Coalition for
Environmental Solidarity (FACES)
INDIVIDUAL CO-SIGNATORS:
Brainard Bivens, Arkansas
Carol Dwyer, Massachusetts
Bob Kinsey, Colorado
David Dow, Massachusetts
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
CALL your U.S. Congressperson and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 672, the
Military Environmental Responsibility Act.
TO READ H.R. 672, GO TO: <http://thomas.loc.gov/> http://thomas.loc.gov/
-END-
—
Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand’s Bay South
Merrimac, WI 53561
(608)643-3124
Email: info@cswab.org
Website: www.cswab.org