Army lax on site cleanup

WASHINGTON — A group camping in 1986 on Utah's Hurricane Mesa, unaware it was once an impact area for Army mortars and grenades, found something that looked a lot like an old artillery shell.

A camper threw it into the campfire — and discovered it was indeed a real shell when it exploded and injured several of them.

The Army, tired of such horror stories of discovering unexploded or forgotten ordnance nationwide, in 1999 issued directives designed to force current and former ranges to better track their cleanup efforts, better record ordnance use, improve security, reduce environmental damage and improve sustainability of ranges.

But inspectors now say those directives were never implemented, according to documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Worse, investigators said even if they had been implemented, they were seriously flawed by not requiring reviews needed to ensure Army and National Guard ranges were truly complying and meeting goals.

Utah is home to such ranges as the Army's Rhode Island-size Dugway Proving Ground. The Pentagon has also said that unexploded ordnance could be at other former defense sites in Utah, including Salt Lake City International Airport, the Hurricane Mesa and Fort Douglas.

The Army Audit Agency, which found the new problems, called for the Army to quickly implement the long-ignored directives now. Army headquarters has concurred with that, according to the documents obtained.

"The Army didn't have an effective Range Sustainment Program because it didn't promptly implement (the Department of Defense's) directives for environmental and explosives safety management," the Army Audit Agency concluded in a report dated Sept. 9, 2003. Why?

"Although DOD issued its directives in 1999, the Army didn't instruct its commands and installations to implement the directives," the report said.

Inspectors say the directives were lost in the shuffle of reorganization at the U.S. Army Installations Management Agency, which occurred about the same time.

Implementation instructions and rules did finally come in 2003 — but inspectors found the Army "delayed funding for implementation until fiscal year 2005." (Inspectors note Army installations supposedly had been ordered to complete management plans originally by Dec. 31, 2001.)

"Unless the Army accelerates implementation of the DOD directives by emphasizing the need for immediate actions and interim fund allocations, Army ranges are at risk for adverse environmental impacts," the Army Audit Agency warned.

Army headquarters in October issued a memo saying it concurred with a recommendation to implement, finally, the new rules with interim funding if necessary.