Centro Journal ISSN: The City University of New York Estados Unidos

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1 Centro Journal ISSN: The City University of New York Estados Unidos Baver, Sherrie L. Environmental justice and the cleanup of Vieques Centro Journal, vol. XVIII, núm. 1, spring, 2006, pp The City University of New York New York, Estados Unidos Available in: How to cite Complete issue More information about this article Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Scientific Information System Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative

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3 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 92 The struggle of Vieques residents against the U.S. Navy has been analyzed systematically from several perspectives, for example, Ayala 2001, García Muniz 2001, Barreto 2002, and McCaffrey The accomplishment is remarkable given that first, the Navy left its installation during a time of heightened national security concerns; and second, islanders were virtually unanimous in wanting the Navy out. Few issues have so effectively mobilized Puerto Ricans collectively, above partisan politics. Although Viequenses succeeded in recapturing la isla nena in May 2003, this represented only the first stage of the struggle. Now stage two represents the need to gain what locals call devolution, decontamination, health care, and sustainable community development. While all these goals are linked, this article will primarily focus on the issue of decontamination. It is important to recall that Viequenses had been struggling to expel the Navy from their island since the early 1970s. Part of the explanation for why the Navy remained until 2003 had to do with the ongoing Cold War and a general acceptance in Washington of the military s need for preparedness. Yet another part had to do with the framing of the conflict. While for some, it was portrayed as a struggle by fishermen to maintain their livelihoods (e.g., Griffith and Valdés Pizzini 2002), for other activists, it was framed as a struggle against colonialism. By the 1990s, however, with the end of the Cold War and before the War on Terrorism and in the era of base closings, islanders began their struggle anew. However, this time they framed their mobilization differently. By the 1990s, organizers had moved away from both radical tactics and a rhetoric of imperialist exploitation. Although perhaps not unjustified, these had previously served to galvanize only a small part of the Puerto Rico s citizens. 1 The accidental death of David Sanes in April 1999, a civilian guard employed by the Navy on Vi e q u e s, s p a r ked a year-long civil disobedience stru ggle that was stunning in its ability to gain Puerto Rican, U. S., and inte rnational support. Much of what was new in this mobilization was using the rhetoric of human rights. Also important, howev e r, w as reframing Vieques as a battle for environmental justice, a thirt y - y e a r- o l d m ovement in the Un i ted States with increasing resonance abroad (Agyeman, Bull a r d, and Evans 2003; Ro b e rts and Thanos 2003). Fi n a lly, while environmental justice s t r a tegies may have been part of the reframing in the first stage of the stru ggle to oust the Nav y, they have become central for stage two as the movement regroups to fight for new goals: decontamination, devolution, health care, and sustainable development. Notions of environmental justice In its most basic formulation, environmental justice (EJ) proponents argue that poor people and people of color disproportionately suffer from the harmful impacts of environmental policy (e.g., Gibbs 1982; Faber 1998; Harvey 1999; Roberts and

4 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 94 Po p u l a t i o n s. 4 The order created the inte r agency Federal Working Group on Environmental Ju s t i ce and gave national import a n ce to what had prev i o u s ly been a set of non-linked stru ggles at the grassroots level. Thus, by the 1990s, environmental j u s t i ce was perceived as a civil right; and by the late 1990s, the EPA w as issuing inte r i m guidelines on how to proceed when environmental injustice is charged under Title V I of the Federal Civil Rights Act (e.g., www. e p a. g ov / c i v i l r i g h t s / , 1998, 2000). While in the first environmental justice struggles the polluting facilities are often thought of as private corporations (e.g., Gibbs 1982; Harr 1995; Wright 2003), by the 1990s there was a recognition that government activities, for example, decommissioned military bases, could also have disproportionately negative impacts on communities. For years, the Defense Department had argued it was exempt from environmental legislation, citing national security. However, by the 1980s, the military was estimated to be generating 500,000 tons of toxic waste per year, more than the top five U.S. chemical companies combined. In fact, DOD is by far the largest polluter in the United States [and] many current and former DOD ranges sit atop or near sources of drinking water, residential neighborhoods, and hunting and fishing grounds. 5 Therefore, in 1984, the courts forced the Defense Department to accept responsibility for decontamination at one hundred sites in thirty states. Further, a 1989 lawsuit forced the Department of Energy (responsible for nuclear waste cleanup on military installations) to provide greater public access and information about the cleanup process as well as funds to citizen groups to hire their own experts for technical and scientific reviews of cleanup activities. Still, the military s cleanup responsibilities remain daunting, given its role as the country s longest-standing industrial polluter and steward of some of America s most ecologically sensitive lands (Switzer 2004: 158 9; Barringer 2005: A18). Finally, although environmental justice may seem like a novel or even irrelevant lens through which to examine the case of Vieques, it may not be so far fetched. In fact, it may be time to revise that standard histo ry of notions of environmental j u s t i ce to start with the Young Lords in the late 1960s. In a recent analysis of metropolitan nature in New York City, geographer Ma t t h ew Gandy (2002) highlights the radical environmental politics of the Puerto Rican barrio in the 1960s and early 1970s. He also focuses on the environmental legacy of the Young Lords in New York in the late 1980s and 1990s in EJ groups such as the Toxic Avengers and South Bronx Clean Air Coalition. Ho wev e r, he also notes that the Young Lords impact in Puerto Rico, where ongoing stru ggles that linked colonialism to industrialization and environmental degradation in Puerto Rico, gained a special vibrancy.

5 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 96 The first call for decontamination: The May 2001 land tra n s f e r With the death of David Sanes in 1999 and the ensuing year of mass mobilizations, peace encampments, civil disobedience, and numerous jailings, including those of celebrities, it seemed that the unthinkable was to happen; the Navy might leave Vieques for good. Sanes was the civilian security guard killed in April 1999 when two F-18 jets involved in training exercises, dropped their two 500-pound bombs, but missed their mark by a mile and a half. David Sanes death provided for the local community, human rights activists, church groups, environmentalists, and the Puerto Rican citizenry at large a visceral example of the injustice of holding large-scale, live fire military training exercises on a small, ecologically fragile island with over nine-thousand inhabitants. The bombing of Vieques became one of the rare issues that allowed Puerto Ricans of all party affiliations to unite on the basis of cultural nationalism and feelings of marginalization (Barreto 2002). After months of negotiations between the Clinton administration in Washington and the Rosselló administration in San Juan, the two governments reached a compromise in Winter The agreement had several components but the part relevant to this discussion was that Washington would conduct a plebiscite for Vieques residents on whether the Navy should stay or leave. If residents voted to expel the Navy, all operations would end by May 1, Totally apart from the plebiscite, the Navy would relinquish control of the western side of Vieques, an area 8,100 acres in size, by May 1, The results of the 2001 land transfer presaged the complexities of future Navy-Vieques relations, especially the cleanup of the much larger and more contaminated eastern side of the island. In the 2001 transfer, parts of the former Naval Ammunition Facility (NAF) were given to local and federal entities. This represented the culmination of the goals of the never-enacted Vieques Land Transfer Act, which former Resident Commissioner Carlos Romero Barceló had submitted to Congress for consideration in 1994 (McCaffrey and Baver 2006). The implementation of the 2001 transfer involved 4,300 acres given to the municipio of Vieques, and 3,100 acres to the U.S. Department of Interior, specifically the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The USFWS land immediately became the first part of the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge. The remaining 800 acres went to the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust, a non-profit group that maintains land in the public interest. Shortly before the transfer, some local activists urged the Vieques Mayor, Dámaso Serrano, not to sign the agreement because no mutually satisfactory remediation strategy had been detailed for the 4,300 acres coming to the municipality. The problem for the activists was that the agreement required the Navy to clean up the site according to land use, but this is not a straightforward process. Indeed the evolving struggle over western Vieques and since 2003, over all of

6 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 98 to Puerto Rico in 2001 when land on the western side of Vieques was handed over by the Navy. However, under Spense, the military retains an ultimate claim to the land if necessary to facilitate military preparedness. 10 The Comité Pro Rescate as well as other groups continue to call for a complete environmental cleanup and a return of all land to the community. For them, devolution would mean not only all the land of the wildlife refuge but also having the Navy close its radar installation and promising never to return to use the Live Impact Area (LIA) for bombing practice. This scenario is unlikely. The issues of devolution of land and decontamination are intimately linked. The Federal government cannot return land that is highly contaminated and littered with unexploded ordnance, and cleaning the land to a level acceptable for human use, at the moment, seems beyond the funds Washington is willing to spend. The Vieques National Wildlife Re f u g e To restate an essential point of this sto ry, large parts of the island are not slate d for cleanup. The vast majority of the land has been designated as the Vi e q u e s National Wildlife Refuge (VNWR). The Refuge was first initiated in May 2001 with the transfer of 3,100 acres on the we s te rn end of Vieques to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Serv i ce (USFWS). At that time USFWS draf ted a co n s e rvation plan with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Re s o u r ce s (DNER) and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust for co n s e rvation of the we s te rn end. In May 2003, 14,573 additional acres from the eas te rn end co m p l e ted the refuge for a total of close to 18,000 acres. Two beaches, Playa La Chiva (Blue beach) and Playa Ca r a c as (Red Beach), have been open to the public since 1999; howev e r, most of the refuge will remain off limits to the public indefinite ly. Officials from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Serv i ce have been developing a manag e - ment plan for the entire refuge, with public input, that should be finalized by 2006; that plan will be in force for fifteen years (Díaz Marrero and Burgos 2004). Without doubt, the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge is a breathtaking place with p o tential to support a thriving eco tourism industry on the island. S i n ce the Nav y s departure two of several articles published in the New Yo r k Ti m e s, for example, ill u s t r a te how we ll - o f f, environmentally attuned No rt h American vacationers view Vi e q u e s. The Navy was leaving behind a priceless gift, 16,000 acres [sic] of untouched land that could make Vieques an unparalleled site for Caribbean ecotourism..that land left behind by the Navy has rolling forested hills that rise out of the blue Caribbean. The magnificent white-

7 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 100 and missiles, the Navy also dropped depleted uranium bullets, napalm, and Agent Orange. Some bombs never exploded and remain on the shallow ocean floor or on a nearby coral reef (Levin 2003). It must be stressed that the cleanup of firing ranges has proven one of the most dangerous, expensive, and challenging tasks in the military base conversion process (Sorensen 1998). Furthermore, live bombs leak contaminants and remain a threat to anyone fishing or diving in the area. For a while, there had also been concern over the USS Killen, a sunken ship off the east coast of Vieques and used by the Navy for target practice. Prior to being used as a bombing target off of Vieques, the Killen had been used in atomic bomb tests in the Pacific in the 1950s. The Navy stopped using the ship in 1975 and then sunk it in thirty feet of water. Residents became concerned about possible radioactivity from the ship, the result of leakage of toxic chemicals from unidentified drums sunk with the wreck. Although government scientists found no evidence of radioactivity or toxins, the incident served to exacerbate residents concerns about health risks in their community. 11 Other revelations have been leaking out, like the toxins on other parts of Vieques. In 1999, the Navy admitted that it accidentally fired 267 uranium-t i p p e d bombs at the island (Gelb 2003). More rece n t ly, in October 2002, DOD officials a d m i t ted the Navy had experimented with chemical and biological weapons on Vieques. Specifically, in May 1969, the Navy had used triocyl phosphate, a chemical related to problems of skin, eyes, respiratory tract, and cancer in animals. Any bombing since 1969 could have dispersed these chemical agents into the surrounding environment (CRDV 2002). Indeed, EPA gave a concise, specific description of the potential dangers posed by the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area (AFWTA) when it formally proposed its Superfund listing on August 13, 2004: The AFWTA facility includes land areas, waters, and cays in and around the islands of Vieques and Culebra impacted by 100 years of military tra i n i n g o p e rations, largely by the U.S. Navy. The Navy used the eastern portion of Vieques for training from the 1940s until it ceased operations there on May 1, Areas of Culebra we re used for military exe rcises from 1902 until July Contaminants of the land and water resulting from these activities may include merc u ry, lead, copper, magnesium, lithium, perc h l o rate, T N T, napalm, depleted uranium, PCBs, solvents, and pesticides. 12 In sum, the Vieques site will prove a highly complex to address. In addition to the heavy metals and ordnance, remediators will have to contend with the degree of

8 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 102 The role of community part i c i p a t i o n From an environmental justice point of view, the most important issue is the role Vieques residents will have in the mind-numbing complexity of government agencies, programs, reports, and timetables to follow at each stage of the cleanup process. In May 2001, after the first land transfer, a Technical Review Committee was convened to oversee future plans for the western part of the island. After the Navy decided which community members sat on this review committee, the Viequenses understood that active and knowledgeable community participation would be crucial in this less dramatic, more technical stage of their struggle. To meet the need for the community involvement, the Comité Pro Rescate set up an environmental taskforce in Winter 2002 that included Puerto Rican environmental lawyers and scientists (GAPT 2002). The Comité also has sought help from activists in the United States with expertise in working with communities affected by military contamination, in particular, the Committee for Public Environmental Oversight, ARC Ecology, Fellowship Of Reconciliation, and the Military Toxics Project. 16 Under CERCLA/Superfund cleanup, now for the entire island, community involvement, since 2004 channeled through a Restoration Advisory Board, is essential in negotiating a just, sustainable solution. 17 This is not simple given the highly technical nature of toxic waste and decontamination methods. Additionally, the high level of mistrust that almost always exists between local residents and outsider polluters means that communities mistrust the expert findings and recommendations of the other side, in this case, the U.S. Navy or some other federal agencies. One reason that Vieques has sought Superfund designation is that the program not only encourages community participation but also seeks to level the stakeholders playing field by providing up to $50,000 per year for technical assistance grants to affected localities. This allows communities to hire their own experts to match those of the polluters. Also, Puerto Rican officials from the Environmental Quality Board usually attend meetings involving community members and Federal officials and are seen as community advocates. As of mid-2005, little cleanup has taken place but studies under Superfund guidelines are under way. Two issues that now seem especially pressing for Viequenses are the ongoing studies on potential groundwater and soil contamination and ordnance disposal methods. First, the Navy has already conducted baseline groundwater studies and is beginning to determine background levels of chemicals in the soil of eastern Vieques to determine the degree of heavy metals contamination. Residents, however, argue that the Navy work plan is flawed: Since there is no area on Vieques that is free of contamination, no soil samples from the island should be used for baseline studies. Second, as of mid-2005, 1,900 bombs were disposed of or removed from the LIA

9 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 104 N OT E S 1 An earlier version of this argument was presented as Ni Una Bomba Más, coauthored with Katherine McCaffrey at the LASA Annual Meeting, Dallas, March In this analysis, the more inclusive concept environmental justice is used not only because not all poor people in the United States are people of color, but more importantly because the more inclusive term allows for wider coalition building. 3 The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice provides information at its website: 4 Executive Order 12,898 of Militox Fact Sheet April The Military Toxics Project aids communities in the U.S. and abroad trying to remediate environmental degradation caused by U.S. military installations. See 6 For example, Misión Industrial and PRISA (now MENPRI or Movimiento Ecuménico de Puerto Rico). 7 Information from Alianza de Mujeres de Vieques, Calle Baldorioty de Castro# 486, Vieques, P.R To track the progress of the cleanup on we s te rn Vieques, go to www. v i e q u e s- n av y - e n v. o r g. 9 On June 14, 2001, President Bush announced in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he was attending a conference, that the Navy would leave Vieques by May See, Vieques Voters Want the Navy to Leave Now, New York Times, July 30, This was ultimately confirmed by Navy Secretary Gordon England in a letter to Puerto Rican Governor Sila Calderón on October 18, See discussion in J. M. García Passalacqua, Visualizing a future without the U.S. Navy, San Juan Star, Oct. 27, 2002, p. 73, or Navy Certifies Vieques Pullout, The Vieques Times, 148, February The Spense Act, authorizing transfer of decommissioned/former military facilities to conservation lands, is formally Section 1503 of the Floyd D. Spense National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (PL ), amended by Section 1049 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (PL ). Also, Section 1503 of the Act required the Secretary of the Navy to certify that alternatives to Vieques existed for training exercises before the Navy could leave the island. 11 While U.S. government scientists found no evidence of radioactivity or toxins (ATSDR 2003), other scientists, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, found contrary evidence (e.g., Díaz and Massol 2003, and Ortiz-Roque and López-Rivera 2004) I thank an anonymous reviewer for this information. 14 Personal communication with B. Barry, EPA Region 2, public information officer, Barry.Benjamin@epamail.epa.gov. 15 The Army Corps cleans up sites left pre-1986; for sites left after 1986, each military branch is responsible for cleaning its bases. 16 Several of these groups led workshops in Washington in May 2004 at the conference

10 Baver(v5).qxd 7/15/06 3:08 PM Page 106 Gelb, Jonathan Navy Exit from Vieques Seen as Merely a Start. The Philadelphia Inquirer April 14. Gibbs, Lois Love Canal: My Story. Albany: SUNY Press. Giusti Cordero, Juan La Marina en la mirilla: una comparación de Vieques con los campos de bombardeo en los Estados Unidos. In Fronteras en conflicto: guerra contra las drogas, militarización y democracia en Puerto Rico, el Caribe y Vieques, cords. Jorge Rodríguez Beruff and Humberto García Muñiz, Río Piedras: Red Caribeña de Geopolítica/Atlantea. Griffith, David and Manuel Valdés Pizzini, Fishers at Work, Workers at Sea: A Puerto Rican Journey through Labor and Refuge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Grossman, K The People of Color Environmental Summit. In Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color, ed. Robert Bullard, San Francisco: Sierra Club. Harr, Jonathan A Civil Action. New York: Random House. Harvey, David The Environment of Justice. In Living With Nature: Environmental Politics as Cultural Discourse, eds. Frank Fischer and Martin Hajer, New York: Oxford. Klein, Deborah For the Future of Vieques, Look to Hawaii. New York Ti m e s June 16. Levin, Kate Vieques Aftermath. The Nation December 22. McCaffrey, Katherine, Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press., and Baver, Sherrie Ni Una Bomba Más: Reframing the Vieques Struggle. In Beyond Sun and Sand: Caribbean Environmentalisms, eds. Sherrie L. Baver and Barbara Deutsch Lynch, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. McPhaul John Even with Superfund, Vieques Cleanup will Take Years. Caribbean Business May 1. Military Toxics Project Fact Sheet. April. Ortiz-Roque, Carmen and Yadiris López-Rivera Mercury Contamination in Reproductive Age Women in a Caribbean Island: Vieques. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58(9): Prats, Roberto The Island of Vieques: Free at Last. San Juan Star May 4. Roberts, J. Timmons and Melissa M. Toffolon-Weiss Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline. New York: Cambridge University Press., and Nikki Demetria Thanos Trouble in Paradise: Globalization and Environmental Crises in Latin America. New York: Routledge.