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GAO-07-552R 1 (2007-03-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptavbe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 March 26, 2007 The Honorable Charles B. Rangel House of Representatives Subject: Defense Infrastructure: Environmental Cleanup of Former Naval Facilities on Vieques Dear Mr. Rangel: This report responds to your request that we determine the status and estimated costs of environmental cleanup on the island of Vieques. For decades, the U.S. Navy conducted ship-to-shore bombing exercises and other live-fire training activities on the island, which is located off the coast of Puerto Rico. The Navy ceased its operations on Vieques in 2003. The Navy has transferred the land to the Municipality of Vieques and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust for conservation purposes and to the Department of the Interior. Although the land has been transferred, the Navy remains responsible for environmental cleanup. The cleanup is being carried out under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) that consists of (1) the Installation Restoration Program, which addresses cleanup of hazardous substances, and (2) the Military Munitions Response Program, which addresses cleanup of munitions. We obtained information on the status and estimated costs of environmental cleanup on Vieques from the Department of the Navy. We performed our work from January through March 2007 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Summary The Navy has identified 37 potentially contaminated sites on Vieques that fall under the installation restoration program. The Navy concluded that no further action was required for 9 of these sites, and the remaining 28 sites are in various phases of the cleanup process. The Navy has allocated about $18.1 million for the investigation and cleanup of these sites through fiscal year 2006 and estimates that an additional $15.2 million is needed to complete cleanup. The Navy has begun the surface removal of munitions on both the east and west sides of Vieques under the munitions response program. In fiscal years 2007 and 2008, the Navy plans to continue surface removal of munitions on eastern Vieques and to begin subsurface munitions clearance on beaches on the eastern and western sides and other selected areas on western Vieques that have been surface cleared. The Navy GAO-07-552R Defense Infrastructure

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