The Department of Defense (DOD) has a greater presence in the Southeast than in any other region of the country—18 major Army installations, 21 major Air Force installations, more than 30 naval bases, 7 Marine Corps bases, and more than 900 reserve and National Guard centers. Given the high density of military facilities in the region, the DOD, the states, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4, have created working partnerships that recognize and promote pollution prevention (P2) as the standard way of doing business. Within the past five years, a P2 partnership has been established in each of the eight states within EPA Region 4.

These partnerships promote P2 by providing a forum for the exchange of information and ideas among installations, the state environmental agencies, the regional military service representatives, and the regional environmental regulators. Prior to the development of the state partnerships, there was little, if any, opportunity for P2 coordinators to interact in an organized fashion with the personnel of other installations and with state and regional regulators. While personnel working on restoration and remediation programs were able to meet regularly, there was no similar venue for P2 managers.

To help the individual state P2 partnerships become even more effective and to promote the sharing of P2 information among the military installations and across state lines, a DOD Regional P2 Partnership was established in 1999. A combined military and civilian working group, the regional partnership comprises many entities: the regional environmental coordinators for each branch of the military; military installations in the region; the Region 4 EPA Office of Pollution Prevention; the Army Corps of Engineers; the Army Reserves; the Defense Logistical Agency; and the P2 offices of the Region 4 states. First established under an EPA grant, the Regional P2 Partnership has continued to enhance base-level environmental compliance and performance through a variety of means. A steering committee coordinates the planning and operations for the partnership; the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Public Service and Policy Research conducts the administrative and managerial functions.

The Mission of the Regional P2 Partnership
Many individual installations, universities, organizations, and agencies arrive at solutions to the various P2 problems and issues they encounter. Nevertheless, other entities struggle with these same problems and issues, unaware that solutions have already been worked out elsewhere. In the interest of avoiding the great amount of time and expense invested in duplicative efforts, and to help the military installations achieve their P2 goals more effectively, the regional partnership has set the following mission for itself:

• To enhance base-level environmental compliance and performance through P2;
• To strengthen the ability to meet base-level and state partnership P2 goals through a Region 4 network that uses a flexible grants program to support P2 education, technical assistance, and problem-solving research needs;
• To provide an easily accessible path to expertise and information resident in universities and state P2 programs to allow timely contributions to improving a base’s environmental performance; and,
• To strengthen the focus on P2 not only as a means toward achieving compliance, but also as a more efficient and cost-effective way to manage base operations.

Identifying Regional Priorities
To help set its sights on those issues that require the most attention, the Regional P2 Partnership set out in 2001 to identify the region’s P2 priorities. The partnership’s executive committee developed a survey with which each state partnership could make known its most urgent P2 needs. The survey also sought to identify the sources of P2 expertise that could address those needs.

A review and compilation of the submitted questionnaires resulted in seven top priorities for the region:

• Affirmative procurement;
• Shop-level P2 training;
• Environmental management systems;
• Management of hazardous materials;
• Construction and demolition debris;
• Recycling;
• Environmental compliance through P2.

These priorities were to be addressed through several funded projects, which are described below. A follow-up survey, scheduled to be conducted in 2004 among the region’s military installations, should help the partnership determine whether the seven priorities have been adequately addressed.

After conducting the P2 survey, the partnership sought proposals for projects designed to address the P2 needs of Region 4’s military installations. By late 2001, the partnership’s executive committee had reviewed the submitted proposals and approved several of them. The committee also requested the funding necessary to carry out these projects.

In June 2002, the partnership received approximately $1.8 million in congressional funds for the selected projects. Various universities in the region provided their services in support of the research. The following narrative presents an overview of these projects.

EMS Implementation Training. The University of Louisville, the University of Tennessee, the University of South Carolina, and Georgia Tech have partnered on this project to offer their experience in developing a Region 4 military sector alliance (user group) for delivery of EMS training, exercises, and technical assistance. Each of the universities has extensive experience and a proven track record in mentoring diverse groups of private-sector companies and federal agencies. The Region 4 DOD EMS Alliance’s focus is on helping participating installations learn how to plan, implement, and audit ISO 14001–aligned EMSs. (Note: ISO 14001 is an international standard that specifies a process for controlling and improving an organization’s environmental performance.) The training occurs at both the regional and state level, with group meetings occurring primarily at military facilities over a 12- to 15-month period. The courses are taught in a manner comparable to a professional-level course and use face-to-face workshops and online Internet, Web-based group activities. This project has been greatly coordinated through the respective chain of command for all of the military services.

Database Development and EMS Integration into DOD Installations. The University of South Carolina (USC) is developing a quantitative and analytical survey used to help capture data and lessons learned. The anticipated data to be collected include such items as obstacles encountered and solutions used throughout the regional group training, the costs incurred, and other expected or unexpected experiences. The survey is being developed through the assistance of the regional partnership’s steering committee and the respective service agency representatives. The data are expected to benefit and help direct future implementation efforts within the respective service agencies as well as help analyze the merit of group training and other EMS benefits as a whole.

In addition, under this project USC is offering DOD participants an opportunity to participate in a 36-hour, EMS certified lead-auditor training course. This training provides in-depth knowledge of how the EMS works and how to conduct assessments on each EMS element to determine implementation effectiveness.

The DOD P2 Watershed Advisory Board. The University of Georgia is taking the lead on this project. New surface water regulatory programs that are increasingly affecting military installations throughout the United States include (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Source Water Assessment requirements; (2) the Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Stormwater Sediment and Erosion Control requirements; and (3) the CWA’s Total Maximum Daily Load requirement. These regulatory programs focus on assessing and reducing pollutant loads into impaired water bodies. (Note: Section 303 (d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters that do not meet water quality standards, called “impaired water bodies.”) Failure to address adequately these new requirements may result in new treatment requirements or permit restrictions, or both, on an installation’s wastewater treatment plant permits—which could have significant impacts on military planning (budgets) and operations (readiness) activities.

Some military installations in the Southeast are aware of the magnitude of some of these issues and have planned accordingly, while others have only more recently begun to learn of impending requirements. The DOD, however, recently developed new guidance and protocols, such as the Storm Water Phase II Guidance and Determination of Applicability and the DOD Installations Watershed Impact Assessment Protocol. The Army and Air Force have recently developed new approaches and resources for assisting their installations in meeting federal and state CWA regulations. The EPA has also developed a Best Management Practices Guidance Manual for controlling impacts of point and non-point sources of pollutants to impaired water bodies.

The purpose of this project is to establish and provide administrative and analytical support to a DOD P2 Watershed Advisory Board that addresses critical policy and technical water resources issues at military bases in Region 4. The specific objectives are as follows: assess current water resource challenges facing military installations in the Southeast; identify cost-effective P2 solutions and leverage resources to resolve critical water resources issues; and promote understanding and successful implementation of proven P2 tools and techniques useful in addressing water resource problems. The EPA is dedicating the equivalent of one full-time person for a year toward this effort.

Study of Air Quality Impacts Resulting from Prescribed Burning on Military Facilities. Guided by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Department of the Interior, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, mandates that Fort Benning, Georgia, use prescribed burning to re-create the natural fire regimes needed to maintain the health of its native longleaf pine forest, thus protecting the habitat of the endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker. Proper management may require as much as one-third of the forest to undergo treatment by fire each year. Biomass burning, however, can contribute significantly to already burdened local and regional air pollutant loads. Recognizing this problem, some areas, such as Atlanta just to the north of Fort Benning, have implemented severe restrictions on outdoor burning of any kind in order to meet the air quality standards mandated by the EPA and the Clean Air Act (CAA).

As air quality in Columbus, Georgia, already exceeds the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and particulate matter, the prescribed burning at Fort Benning mandated by the ESA soon may conflict with the requirements for clean air under the CAA. Other military facilities–such as Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia, Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida, and Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina—face similar circumstances and so must also find ways to reconcile potential inconsistencies in the implementation of these federal statutes. In developing an effective and efficient strategy that provides the ecological benefits afforded by prescribed burning without compromising an area’s ability to meet clean air goals, an important question to ask is this: To what extent does prescribed burning actually affect local and regional air quality?

In this project, Georgia Tech is collaborating with Fort Benning and Columbus State University to collect and analyze fine-particle samples during the burning and nonburning days at Fort Benning. This study complements Georgia’s Fall line Air Quality Study program. Additionally, it contributes to two other Fort Benning–based modeling projects by providing (1) an improved understanding of the factors contributing to poor air quality in the Columbus metropolitan area, and (2) data on which these models may either be based or evaluated. The confluence of the these projects provides an unprecedented opportunity for a comprehensive understanding of military base impacts on local and regional air quality and, in particular, impacts resulting from the direct gaseous and particulate emissions from prescribed burning.

These lessons learned at Fort Benning will provide a general quantitative understanding of the impact of prescribed burning on regional air quantity, an understanding that will benefit all other federal facilities that rely heavily on prescribed fire to maintain their lands. This research may also influence the reduction of the emission or secondary formation of air pollutants that threaten human health both on and off the federal facility.

Investigation of the Effects of Munitions Related Metals Corrosion Byproducts on the Lead and Metal Mobility at Existing Small Arms Training Ranges. Small Arms Training Activities (SATA) and the use of large-caliber munitions result in a large deposit of these projectiles in the soil. More than 22,000 rounds per week end up in the soil at a single range. It is estimated that more than 18,000 lbs of lead per year, per range, are deposited in the soil and can adversely affect the environment. Copper and zinc (from brass components) are also a concern and can have detrimental effects on the surrounding biota. Little information is available regarding the interaction of these metals and their effects on the soil properties.

Off-range metals transported via ground or surface waters will result in compliance issues related to SATA. This project, headed by Mississippi State University, is developing an understanding of the munitions corrosion phenomenon and the metal and soil interaction, and is conducting preliminary lab investigations to control metal migration. The ultimate goal of this research is to support the development of guidance documents and methods that will prevent noncompliance by slowing or preventing water pollution by metal contaminants in munitions.

Results from this effort will be used in developing best management practice guides and to help guide policy on the implementation of management techniques at training areas in order to help mitigate contaminant migration.

Development of an In-Vessel Biotreatment System for On-Board Management of Bilge Water. The treatment of bilge water represents a multi-million-dollar cost to U.S. Navy ports, and this cost continues to increase with the passage of environmental regulations that limit the disposal of bilge water. This Mississippi State University project uses the bilge tanks of ships as active bioreactors in which special bacteria are seeded; these bacteria continuously degrade the waste constituents as they are pumped into the tanks. Volumes and detention times within these tanks are generally in the range of thousands of gallons and several months, respectively, making this concept technically feasible. These bioreactors are known to be effectively treated within conventional shore-based biotreatment systems. The research concept addresses P2 at ports and at open-ocean operations. The university is working closely with numerous naval ports and naval facilities within the region.

Depending on the level of success, the project team will attempt to transfer the results of this effort to DOD and commercial entities. Of particular interest will be the demonstration of the developed technologies within a Navy vessel and at an Army wash rack facility.

Pollution Prevention Through the Optimization of Building Deconstruction for DOD Facilities. The University of Florida is heading this project. Under the facility reduction program of the Army and other military services, surplus buildings are demolished and typically sent to a landfill. The Army Environmental Research and Development Center has estimated that the Army alone has more than 50 million square feet of surplus buildings to be removed by fiscal year 2005. This effort will cost roughly $45 million. Some estimates triple that amount if demolition requirements for Army family housing, military construction, and other major construction programs are included. However, the initial expense of demolishing buildings is only part of an installation’s problem.

This project determines the optimum methods for the deconstruction of typical military wooden buildings at DOD facilities. Targeted buildings include wooden barracks or other wooden residential and warehouse buildings in existence since World War II and found in large numbers on active and closed military bases. The project team is deconstructing a number of the same types of buildings using a series of techniques at Fort McClellan, in Anniston, Alabama. The techniques range from a traditional mechanical demolition and disposal to a whole-building, hand-labor disassembly. The overall goal of the project is to determine the optimization of deconstruction of as many as four buildings in terms of cost-effectiveness and diversion of materials for reuse. Based on the findings, the project team will develop optimum disassembly plans and provide on-site technical assistance to active military bases in the Southeast that have expressed an interest in pursuing deconstruction as an alternative to demolition.

How-To Guide for Conducting Green Deconstruction. Personnel at Fort Knox and other regional installations have extensive experience with using successful alternative deconstruction operations. The Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center, located at the University of Louisville, and the University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services in Nashville, Tennessee, is developing a How-To Guide for Conducting Green Deconstruction with Fort Knox (Kentucky) and Fort Campbell (Kentucky and Tennessee) and delivering a one-day training program introducing the manual with peer mentors presenting.

An Online Knowledge Base for Sustainable Military Facilities and Infrastructure. Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure Program has provided numerous training courses to DOD personnel around the country and has collected data regarding barriers to sustainable design and construction. Among the most commonly identified barriers to implementation are a lack of institutional infrastructure and standard procedures, a lack of knowledge, a risk of failure, and unclear pay-offs. Installations need better information and structure to aid in decision-making in the earliest possible stages. Installations and headquarters need to be able to identify nontraditional costs and benefits associated with sustainable projects, and they need to be able to identify quickly and rank project opportunities that will maximize their investments in sustainability.

The principal deliverable of this project is a fully functional prototype of the online knowledge base that can be immediately used by installation personnel to access relevant knowledge as well as to store knowledge from their own projects. The system will be field tested for validation and refinement using volunteer design and construction personnel from installations throughout Region 4. This prototype demonstration project provides a basic framework to structure and deliver information on sustainable projects to help military design and construction professionals decide how to implement sustainability in their particular situations while capturing their decisions to serve as an institutional memory or knowledge base to provide information for other stakeholders of future projects. Six Web-based modules are being developed to demonstrate the knowledge database concept.

Green Procurement from Local Sources. Fayetteville State University is heading this project, which addresses regional issues related to affirmative procurement. In accordance with Executive Order 131001, Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition, Fort Bragg is striving to procure environmentally preferable products from local markets. Stakeholders at the 2001 Environmental Sustainability Executive Conference also identified this goal as a priority. While the executive order requires procurement of environmentally preferable products, Fort Bragg is taking the program one step further by aiming to purchase such products from local markets. This approach will not only boost the local economy and ensure the long-term viability of the region, but will also reduce emissions created by transporting materials across the country.

The purpose of the Fayetteville State University Green Procurement from Local Sources project is to (1) identify environmentally preferable products and product lines from local sources and (2) produce training manuals for Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base that emphasize the positive outcomes of using local environmentally preferable products, including the reduction in the use of potentially hazardous materials, an increase in military effectiveness, and a reduction in military expenditures.

Administration and Coordination of the DOD Region 4 P2 Partnership. The Institute for Public Service and Policy Research at the University of South Carolina provides comprehensive administration and coordination for the regional partnership’s tasks. The institute develops all task-related materials such as guidelines and reporting forms; provides training and technical assistance as required; monitors ongoing activities for funding project tasks; and works with DOD Region 4 facilities and the regional environmental coordinators on tracking deliverables for each task. The institute also receives, compiles, and assembles all required reports and is responsible for preparing a comprehensive final report for presentation by March 2004.

The Next Steps for the Partnership
The Regional P2 Partnership has accomplished much in its short existence, but, given the size of the region and the large number of military installations, more work remains to be done. The partnership finds itself at the stage where it needs to take stock of where it is and where it needs to go.

One thing to keep in mind is that the focus of the Regional P2 Partnership is not the partnership itself. To date, it has identified the region’s P2 needs, selected projects to address those needs, and obtained the necessary DOD funding to make it all happen. These efforts deserved the close attention they received, and their successful execution is a credit to the partnership as a whole. The regional partnership’s focus will now shift back to the individual state P2 partnerships, for they are the reason the regional partnership was created in the first place. And the region needs to broaden its sphere of interest to encompass more than just P2—it needs to embrace the concept of sustainability.

Also known as sustainable development, sustainability refers to the responsible management of the earth’s resources in such a way that our current needs do not jeopardize those of future generations. Sustainability includes P2, but it encompasses other media and concepts as well. Nevertheless, P2 provides the main path to sustainability. In keeping with its renewed focus, the Regional P2 Partnership will become the regional sustainability partnership.

The original focus, as mentioned above, is the support of the individual state P2 partnerships, and the regional partnership will renew its emphasis on that goal. Through research, technology transfer, and other means, the regional partnership stands ready to help the states where and as it can. One approach will be the distribution of the reports that come out of the research projects described in this article. Those reports are scheduled to be completed early next year.

The regional partnership will also enhance its outreach among other states, both within Region 4 and without. Sustainability is not just a regional concern; if Region 4’s environmental research and solutions can help military installations in other regions achieve their own sustainability goals, then everyone benefits.