Support the Military Environmental Responsibility Act

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.

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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/

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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