I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1958 

To amend the Military Construction Authorization Act, 1974 to repeal the 

limitation on the authorized uses of the former bombardment area on 

the island of Culebra and the prohibition on Federal Government responsibility for decontamination of the area. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 2, 2009 

Mr. PIERLUISI (for himself, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. GUTIERREZ, and Ms. 

VELA ́ZQUEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To amend the Military Construction Authorization Act, 1974 

to repeal the limitation on the authorized uses of the 

former bombardment area on the island of Culebra and 

the prohibition on Federal Government responsibility for 

decontamination of the area. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. DECONTAMINATION AND USE OF FORMER 

4 BOMBARDMENT AREA ON ISLAND OF 

5 CULEBRA. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7 ings: 


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1 (1) Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, is located ap2 proximately 17 miles from the east coast of Puerto 

3 Rico’s main island, and the Navy conducted ship-to4 shore bombing exercises and other live-fire training 

5 activities for over 70 years in unpopulated areas of 

6 Culebra and its surrounding waters. 

7 (2) In 1975, Congress required the Navy to 

8 close its operations on Culebra in response to long9 standing concerns among the residents about safety, 

10 health, and environmental risks. The Navy moved its 

11 operations to nearby training facilities on Vieques 

12 Island, which were closed in 2003 due to similar 

13 concerns. 

14 (3) Although the Navy’s facilities on Culebra 

15 closed in 1975, the Department of Defense did not 

16 begin to address the cleanup of these areas until 

17 Congress enacted specific authorities for the cleanup 

18 of former United States military sites in section 211 

19 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization 

20 Act of 1986 (Public Law 99–499). With these au21 thorities, the Army Corps of Engineers added 

22 Culebra to the Formerly Used Defense Sites Pro23 gram in 1991, and for several years thereafter, per24 formed relatively limited cleanup of unexploded ord25 nance from the surface. 


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1 (4) In 2003, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Sila 

2 M. Caldero ́n, requested that the Environmental Pro3 tection Agency add both Culebra and Vieques to the 

4 National Priorities List of the most hazardous sites. 

5 In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency 

6 added Vieques to the National Priorities List, but 

7 delayed its listing decision for Culebra. Instead, 

8 Puerto Rico and the Army Corps of Engineers de9 cided to address the cleanup of Culebra under a sep10 arate agreement, under which the Army Corps of 

11 Engineers has begun to plan a more comprehensive 

12 removal of unexploded ordnance on Culebra. 

13 (5) The Army Corps of Engineers had spent 

14 $11,100,000 as of the end of fiscal year 2007 on the 

15 cleanup of Culebra and estimated that another 

16 $92,600,000 would be needed to complete planned 

17 cleanup actions. These amounts pale in comparison 

18 to the $77,600,000 the Navy has already spent, and 

19 the $253,100,000 the Navy plans to spend in the fu20 ture, to complete the cleanup of Vieques. 

21 (6) The more limited scope of the cleanup on 

22 Culebra has become a rising issue. The greater fund23 ing for Vieques is not based on differing conditions 

24 on the islands. Both were used for the same types 


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1 of training exercises for several decades and are like2 ly to contain similar hazards. 

3 (7) Instead, the discrepancy is primarily attrib4 utable to the fact that certain of the most potentially 

5 hazardous areas on Culebra, including the North6 west Peninsula and Flamenco Beach, have been ex7 cluded from Federal cleanup plans because the 

8 Corps of Engineers maintains that a 1974 Federal 

9 law prohibits the Army Corps of Engineers from 

10 conducting cleanup in those areas. 

11 (8) Section 204(c) of the Military Construction 

12 Authorization Act, 1974 (Public Law 93–166; 87 

13 Stat. 668) prohibited land uses in the ‘‘present’’ (at 

14 the time of enactment) bombardment zone on 

15 Culebra that would require cleanup at the expense of 

16 the Federal Government. 

17 (9) Puerto Rico asserts that specific authorities 

18 for the cleanup of former United States military 

19 sites enacted later by Congress in Public Law 99– 

20 499 superseded this prohibition. Despite these later 

21 authorities, the Army Corps of Engineers maintains 

22 that the prohibition still stands to exclude certain 

23 areas of Culebra from Federal cleanup funds that 

24 otherwise are available to all other former United 


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1 States military sites in the 50 States and United 

2 States territories. 

3 (10) Based on its interpretation, the Army 

4 Corps of Engineers has not included the Northwest 

5 Peninsula and Flamenco Beach in the scope of its 

6 cleanup plan for Culebra. Because the Northwest 

7 Peninsula and Flamenco Beach likely contain the 

8 greatest amounts of unexploded ordnance on 

9 Culebra, public concern has grown about the exclu10 sion of these areas from the cleanup effort. 

11 (11) Section 2872 of H.R. 5658 of the 110th 

12 Congress, as passed by the House of Representa13 tives, would have repealed the prohibition in the 

14 1974 statute, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers 

15 to expend funds to address potential human health, 

16 safety, and environmental risks in the Northwest Pe17 ninsula and Flamenco Beach. 

18 (b) REPEAL.—Section 204 of the Military Construc19 tion Authorization Act, 1974 (Public Law 93–166; 87 

20 Stat. 668) is amended by striking subsection (c). 

Æ 


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