Problems uncovered in Meade cleanup

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Problems uncovered in Meade cleanup
By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer
Published 08/19/10

When it comes to cleaning up polluted military installations - including Fort George G. Meade - federal defense and environmental officials are rarely on the same page, threatening the success of restoration efforts, according to a new report.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, spent a year and a half evaluating the efforts to clean up decades' worth of pollution at Fort Meade and other military installations. The GAO's report found serious problems, including:

The Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency have different ways of defining polluted areas and measuring cleanup efforts.

Some military facilities don't have formal cleanup agreements with the EPA. Fort Meade's agreement was signed in 2009 - after the GAO investigation began and the state threatened to sue.

The military uses performance-based contracts, which may motivate environmental contractors to overlook problems or push for less costly and less-complicated cleanup techniques.