Polluting Pentagon Rebuffs EPA Orders

The Pentagon is holding out on an Environmental Protection Agency order to clean up pollutants from three military bases where chemicals have become an "imminent and substantial" threat to the public health and environment, the Washington Post reports. The Defense Department also won’t sign contracts to clean up 12 other military sites listed among the most polluted areas in the US. Instead, it has sought federal backing to deny the EPA’s power to issue such orders.

“This is stunning,” said an environmental law expert. “The idea that they would refuse to sign a final order—that is the height of amazing nerve.” A congressman probing the Pentagon’s environmental behavior said officials were dodging the law.