This partnering concept gives local citizens the opportunity to inform Eglin officials on the areas they consider priorities in the restoration process. Eglin representatives encourage consideration of relative risk in reaching consensus on future priorities and annual budget requests. Future funding is expected to become even more of a concern, and, while most of Eglin's IRP sites are still in a study phase, cleanup requires more funding than the studies do. Despite challenges, Eglin has made substantial progress. Because much of what the Air Force does is similar to the rest of America's industrial complex, many of the types of cleanup sites are very similar to those most American communities are actively remediating.
Landfills are a common remediation problem throughout America.
Industrial and maintenance operations that are currently regulated by state, federal and Air Force guidelines were not so strictly managed in the past. Until relatively recently, burial of domestic and hazardous waste in the same landfill was the accepted standard of disposal. Two of Eglin's landfills are currently being remediated by Okaloosa County, while being monitored by the Eglin IRP staff. Spill sites on Eglin parallels the Air Force average. The vast majority of Eglin's spill sites are related to storing and transferring jet fuels.