Expected Environmental Cleanup Costs for the 2005 BRAC Round Are Not Yet Fully Known

Expected environmental cleanup costs for the 2005 BRAC round are not  yet fully known, but they are likely to increase from current estimates. However, our  prior work has indicated that as closures are implemented, more intensive  environmental investigations occur and additional hazardous  contamination may be uncovered resulting in higher cleanup costs. Cleanup Cost Estimates for BRAC 2005 Round Bases Are Not Fully Known and Likely to Increase

Although DOD data indicate that at least $950 million will be needed for  cleanup of the major and minor base closures resulting from the 2005  BRAC round, this figure reflects preliminary amounts that are likely to  increase as more information is collected during BRAC implementation on  the extent of cleanup required to safely reuse property in communities  where future land use decisions have yet to be made. These  additional costs could add millions to the overall cost estimate. DOD’s Environmental Cleanup Reports Do Not Provide a Complete Picture of Environmental Cleanup Cost Information

Congress does not have complete visibility over the expected total cost of  DOD’s cleanup efforts for the 2005 BRAC round or for the prior BRAC  rounds because of a variety of reports that individually are incomplete and  which collectively may present a confusing picture of costs. In order to provide a complete picture of the total  cleanup costs at BRAC bases, specific information must be extracted from  various reports, which we have done in order to present the total costs to  clean up properties resulting from prior BRAC round decisions. As a result, the cost of cleaning up BRAC property lacks  transparency and Congress does not have total visibility over this  multibillion dollar BRAC environmental cleanup effort. However, environmental cleanup of  contamination continues to be a key impediment to transferring the  remaining properties. DOD Continues to Make Progress in Transferring Unneeded Properties

Since our last report on this subject in January 2005, DOD has made some  progress in transferring remaining unneeded property, having transferred  78 percent, (about 390,300 acres) of the 502,500 total unneeded acres  from prior BRAC rounds to federal and nonfederal entities—up from 72  percent (about 364,000 acres of the estimated 504,000 acres DOD reported  at the end of fiscal year 2004) from 2 years ago. Prolonged negotiations between environmental regulators and DOD  about compliance with environmental regulations and laws can delay  property transfers. Opportunities Exist to Expedite Cleanup and Transfer of Unneeded BRAC Properties

Although opportunities exist to expedite the cleanup and transfer of  unneeded BRAC 2005 properties, as well as untransferred properties from  prior BRAC rounds, it is not clear to what extent each of these  opportunities are considered for BRAC properties nor what successes or  challenges were seen in their application since the services are not  required to report their strategies for addressing unclean and  untransferred properties to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Over the years, Congress has provided DOD with a wide range of property  transfer authorities to expedite the cleanup and transfer of unneeded  BRAC property, including public sales and the so-called “Early Transfer  Authority,” which allows property to be transferred before all necessary  cleanup actions have been completed. Each of the military services has processes in place to monitor  their progress to clean and transfer BRAC properties. 205,400 (65%) 13,300 (5%)
As shown in figure 3, low- and no-cost property conveyance mechanisms  accounted for 65 percent (205,400) of all acres transferred—public benefit,  conservation, and economic development conveyances were used in 17  percent, 19 percent, and 29 percent, respectively–whereas public and  negotiated sales accounted for 5 percent (13,300) of all acres transferred. Numerous tools have been made available to DOD to help expedite the  transfer of unneeded BRAC property to other users. As DOD seeks to use  these tools for 2005 BRAC round bases, OSD could more effectively  conduct its oversight responsibilities by requiring the services to  periodically report on their progress to transfer properties and plans to  take full advantage of the tools available to them. To address our second objective to examine DOD’s progress in  transferring unneeded properties from the four prior BRAC rounds, we  reviewed our prior BRAC reports and reports prepared by the  Congressional Research Service and DOD on this subject. During the course of our review, we contacted the following offices with  responsibility for oversight, management, and implementation of the  environmental cleanup of military and specifically, BRAC bases:  Office of the Secretary of Defense    Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,  Technology and Logistics, Installations and Environment,   Washington, D.C.
Office of the Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), Washington, D.C.
Army Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff of Installation Management,  Base Realignment and Closure Division, Arlington, Virginia    Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, Environmental  Safety and Occupational Health, Washington, D.C.
Army Installation Management Agency, Arlington, Virginia    Army Materiel Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia    Army Environmental Center, Aberdeen, Maryland    Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Office for Formerly Used  Defense Sites, Washington, D.C.
Army National Guard, Arlington, Virginia    Navy BRAC Program Management Office Northeast, Philadelphia,    Navy BRAC Program Management Office, West, San Diego, California    Navy BRAC Environmental Office, Arlington, Virginia    Air Force Real Property Agency, Arlington, Virginia    Air Force Audit Agency, Washington, D.C.    Air National Guard, Arlington, Virginia    Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer, Environmental Division,   Arlington, Virginia    Federal Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Facilities Branch,    Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials,  Washington, D.C.
State of California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento,    Fort Ord Reuse Authority, Marina, California    McClellan Local Reuse Authority, Sacramento, California    Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment Authority, Alameda, California    Umatilla Reuse Authority, Hermiston, Oregon    Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority, Brunswick, Maine    Fort Monroe Reuse Authority, Hampton, Virginia We visited three bases closed during the prior BRAC rounds—chosen  because they represent each of the three services and also have the three  most expensive estimated costs to complete cleanups for sites currently  undergoing cleanup:    Fort Ord, Marina, California    McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, California    Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, California We also visited four bases scheduled for closure under the 2005 BRAC  round—chosen to represent a variety of missions as well as geographic  diversity:    Fort Monroe, Hampton, Virginia    Umatilla Chemical Depot, Hermiston, Oregon    Brunswick Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine    Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant, Picayune, Mississippi  We conducted our work from January 2006 through November 2006 in  accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Why GAO Did This Study

The cleanup of environmental contamination on unneeded property resulting from prior defense base realignment and closure (BRAC) rounds has been a key impediment to the transfer of these properties and could be an issue in the transfer and reuse of unneeded property resulting from the 2005 BRAC round. GAO's analysis of available data indicates that, when completed, the cleanup for the four prior BRAC rounds is expected to cost about $13.2 billion and additional costs will be needed for BRAC 2005 property. These costs reduce BRAC savings, especially in the short term. Because of broad congressional interest in BRAC, GAO prepared this report under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative. GAO's objectives were to examine costs to clean up 2005 BRAC properties, progress in transferring prior BRAC rounds properties to other users, and opportunities to expedite cleanups and transfers. To address these issues, GAO analyzed cleanup cost estimates, interviewed environmental officials and visited seven bases.

What GAO Found

While expected environmental cleanup costs for unneeded property arising from the 2005 BRAC round are not yet fully known, Department of Defense (DOD) data indicate that about $950 million will be needed to clean up these bases, adding to the estimated $13.2 billion total cleanup cost for the prior rounds. Although DOD's cleanup program has matured compared to prior BRAC rounds, there are still many unknowns and the cleanup estimate for the 2005 round should be considered preliminary. In fact, environmental cleanup costs are likely to increase as more intensive environmental investigations are undertaken, additional hazardous conditions are discovered, and future reuse plans are finalized. Furthermore, Congress does not have full visibility over the total cost of DOD's BRAC cleanup efforts because none of the four reports DOD prepares on various aspects of environmental cleanup present all types of costs--past and future--to complete cleanup at each base. Compiling a complete picture of all costs requires extracting information from multiple reports, as GAO has done to estimate the total cleanup cost for the four prior BRAC rounds. More complete and transparent cost information would assist Congress in conducting its oversight responsibilities for this multibillion dollar effort. While GAO's analysis shows that DOD continues to make progress in transferring over 502,500 acres of unneeded property from the four prior BRAC rounds--78 percent of the acres have now been transferred compared to 72 percent 2 years ago--over 112,300 acres remain untransferred. Comparatively, a total of about 102,000 acres are potentially transferable as a result of the 2005 BRAC round. Impediments to transfer continue to be related primarily to a variety of interrelated environmental cleanup issues, including limited technology to address unexploded ordnance and prolonged negotiations on compliance with environmental regulations. Opportunities exist to expedite the cleanup and transfer of unneeded 2005 BRAC properties compared with other BRAC rounds. Congress provided DOD with a wide range of property transfer authorities for prior BRAC rounds. In the past DOD did not use some tools as much as others out of deference to community land reuse plans. For example, low- and no-cost transfer tools accounted for 65 percent of all acres transferred, whereas public and negotiated sales accounted for 5 percent. DOD's March 2006 guidance now encourages the services to make full use of all tools for transferring properties resulting from both the 2005 and prior-year BRAC rounds. The services have processes in place to monitor their progress to clean up and transfer BRAC properties, but they are not required to report periodically to the Office of the Secretary of Defense on their successes and challenges in using various transfer authorities. Collectively, such lessons learned could help others expedite the cleanup and transfer of unneeded properties by maximizing the use of all available tools, thereby accelerating the economic benefits of property reuse to communities while also saving the ongoing caretaker costs being incurred by DOD for unneeded properties.