Restoring our Environment: Laughlin's responsibility and yours

  • Published
  • By Daniel Gallegos
  • 47th Installation Support Squadron
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Among the many programs we engage in as part of base and community involvement efforts, the Air Force's IRP is one of the few where importance to the environment and community can not be over-emphasized.

Most of us might be wondering what IRP means and what its purposes are.

The Installation Restoration Program is designed to identify, investigate and clean-up contamination associated with past Air Force activities at active-military installations, government-owned, contractor-operated facilities, off-site locations where contamination may have migrated, third-party sites and sites that the Air Force formerly owned or used.

This definition might also beg the question, "What does IRP have to do with me?"

Before we delve into that, let's take a look at how the program began at Laughlin. The IRP program at Laughlin started in 1985 when a base records research identified nine areas of potential contamination here. Subsequently, some other site investigations and assessments were conducted, and more contaminated sites discovered were discovered, bumping the number of potential contamination sites to 24. These contaminations included 12 spill sites, five storage tanks, five disposal areas, one landfill and one firing training area. After this discovery, 17 of the 24 sites have been cleaned up and closed in accordance with the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality standards.

Being a good steward for human health and the environment, the Air Force adopted community involvement efforts which are designed to encourage public participation during the cleanup process. The Air Force developed a comprehensive community relation plan for the installation. CRP acts as an information repository, established for public access to site information, investigation results, technical data and decision documents.

In addition, the Restoration Advisory Board was established to benefit both the community and the installation. RAB serves as a proactive forum between the public and the installation. Instead of a one-sided public meeting, RAB promotes open dialog between both parties to ensure that the installation is not making decisions without any input from the community. This serves to improve the base credibility and prevents the spread of rumors concerning the nature of sites in the IRP process.

This is where we all fit in the picture. Though you might be saying, "I'm not directly responsible for the contamination of the soil and ground water along the flightline apron or in the Laughlin industrial area," the bottom line is that each of us is partly responsible for maintaining cleanliness of our environment.

Whether it is in our homes, workplaces or anywhere we visit, we are faced with daily decisions concerning the preservation of our environment. It is not a challenge when we comply with legislations because it's the law and because we have inspectors looking over our shoulders to ensure compliance. Doing the right thing when no one is watching simply because it is the right thing to do constitutes a true character. This is what we must instill in our mind, and we must weave it into the fabric of our society.

From littering on the streets and roads to dumping used car oil in a hole in our backyard, we must be conscious that all our actions will sooner or later affect the community in which we live. Certain practices that were accepted in the past must no longer be tolerated. The Laughlin IRP is a successful program which has now achieved closure of over 70 percent of the contaminated sites on base. In parallel, we must move forward as a society in our responsibility to secure a clean, safe environment for ourselves and for future generations.

After all, it is your environment.