March 12, 2003

The Honorable Duncan Hunter

Chairman

Armed Services Committee

U.S. House of Representatives

2120 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Ike Skelton

Ranking Member

Armed Services Committee

U.S. House of Representatives

2120 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressmen Hunter and Skelton:

On behalf of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program
Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution
Control Officials (ALAPCO), the two national associations of state and
local air pollution control officials in 54 states and territories and
more than 165 major metropolitan areas across the country, we write to
you today to express concerns regarding potential changes to Clean Air
Act (CAA) provisions as they relate to activities of the U.S. Department
of Defense (DOD), and to urge against such potential changes during
upcoming debate over the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2004."

As part of your Committee's deliberations over this bill, amendments to
various environmental and public health statutes will be considered. We
understand that there will be a hearing on such proposed amendments in
your Committee tomorrow. These amendments, which were based on
recommendations by DOD, would provide broad statutory exemptions for
purposes of military readiness, including sweeping exemptions from the
CAA. Our associations opposed these CAA exemptions when they were
proposed last year and we are writing again now to oppose them just as
forcefully. We are pleased that Congress rejected adoption of the CAA
exemptions last year and we urge you to do so again this year.

STAPPA and ALAPCO believe that the proposed CAA exemptions are
unwarranted and will impede local, state and federal efforts to attain
and maintain health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
and deliver healthful air to our citizens. Such exemptions would also
interfere with our efforts to protect air quality in national parks and
other important ecosystems. Section 2018 of the bill exempts air
pollution caused by military readiness activities from state and federal
implementation plans designed to meet the health-based NAAQS. For
nonattainment areas, the exemption would last for three years, while for
attainment and unclassifiable areas, the exemption appears to be
permanent.

These exemptions would allow military readiness activities, alone among
air pollution activities that our members regulate, to cause or
contribute to violations of health-based NAAQS, increase the frequency
or severity of such violations or delay timely attainment of the
standards or interim milestones. Further, the bill's response to these
sweeping exemptions is to allow EPA to approve areas as being in
attainment with the ozone, carbon monoxide and PM~10~ air quality
standards -- even when those areas in fact are not in attainment with
those standards -- if the area would be in attainment but for air
pollution from military readiness activities.

We believe these exemptions and the bill's response are unjustified and
would improperly compromise the CAA's mission and the responsibilities
of state and local officials to protect public health and safeguard air
quality. We oppose any approach that would undermine the integrity of
health-based air quality standards by designating air quality to be
healthy when it is not. Moreover, this approach would impose inequitable
burdens upon the industries we regulate, as well as on the public. State
and local air pollution control officials will still feel the
responsibility to deliver truly healthful air to the public we serve
and, therefore, we will have no choice but to call upon other sectors in
order to obtain the emission reductions we can no longer secure from
military facilities.

In addition, STAPPA and ALAPCO believe that such exemptions are
unnecessary, in that the CAA already provides DOD ample flexibility to
carry out its duties. Under Section 118 of the CAA, the President may
exempt DOD from any requirements of the Act upon finding that it is of
"paramount interest of the United States to do so." Further, the federal
regulations implementing the CAA's "general conformity" provisions from
which DOD specifically seeks exemption also allow DOD to suspend
compliance in the case of emergencies (which, by definition, include
terrorist activities and military mobilizations) and, additionally,
permit DOD to conduct routine movement of material, personnel and mobile
assets, such as ships and aircraft, provided no new support facilities
are constructed.

In light of the broad statutory and regulatory flexibilities already
provided, we do not believe that additional CAA exemptions are necessary
in order for DOD to conduct military readiness activities. Further, we
believe the CAA exemptions sought by DOD would, essentially, serve only
to allow routine, non-emergency activities that require the construction
of additional support facilities to skirt important environmental
requirements. The significant adverse air quality impacts that could
result from such exemptions could unnecessarily place the health of our
nation's citizens at risk.

STAPPA and ALAPCO urge you and your colleagues to reject actions to
exempt DOD from CAA requirements. If, however, such actions are to be
further pursued, we respectfully request that Congress allow for full
participation by all interested parties, including state and local air
pollution control officials, and that other congressional committees
with jurisdiction over CAA issues also be included.

If you have any questions, or if STAPPA and ALAPCO can provide any
further information, please do not hesitate to contact either of us or
STAPPA/ALAPCO Executive Director S. William Becker at (202) 624-7864.

Sincerely,

Lloyd L. Eagan Ellen Garvey

STAPPA President ALAPCO President

cc: The Honorable Joel Hefley

The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz