Joint Base Andrews — formerly Andrews Air Force Base — in Maryland,
near Washington D.C., does local damage as well as serving as the
departure point for U.S. Presidents to fly to spots distant from
Washington, D.C.
Forever chemicals commonly known as PFAS are part of that damage, and
the U.S. Air Force is addressing the problem as the U.S. government
usually addresses problems, with public relations stunts. On Tuesday,
April 29, it will hold a public meeting. We’d like people to join our
Board Member Pat Elder in attending.
Just show up, or contact Pat at [email protected]
Pat, who maintains the militarypoisons.org website, has written about this:
The Air Force has chosen to engage contaminated
communities like Prince George’s County, Maryland in three ways: through
the establishment of a Restoration Advisory Board, through community
“town hall” meetings that provide community members the [opportunity] to
participate in “Q & A” sessions, and through highly scripted
“community conversations.”
The Air Force tightly controls the agenda and
the narrative at all three kinds of these civic engagements. An Air
Force Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) is a regularly held community
forum made up of Air Force representatives, regulatory agencies, and
the local community members. The agenda and public releases regarding
the meetings concerning environmental cleanup efforts are controlled by
the Air Force.
RABs have no decision-making power, and their
input can be easily dismissed or ignored by the Air Force. They create a
kind of pressure valve to allow community members to vent their
frustrations. RABs typically provide limited access to information,
incomplete data sharing, and technical jargon that makes it hard for
community members to fully understand the issues. RABs typically fail to
reflect the full diversity of the impacted communities. There is no
standardized model for how RABs function, so individual commands tend to
make things up as they go along.
Even so, RAB’s can occasionally provide a source
of embarrassment to the chain of command, so the Air Force would rather
not have to deal with them. Throughout the country, the Air Force has
issued boilerplate press releases saying the community wouldn’t be
interested in participating. Here’s the one from JB Andrews:
Todd E. Randolph, Colonel, USAF Commander, Joint Base Andrews, issued this statement on September 12, 2023:
Decision Not to Establish a Restoration Advisory Board for Joint Base Andrews
In accordance with DoDM 4715.20, Defense Environmental Restoration
Program (DERP) Management, Encl 3, para 16.c(3), this memorandum for
record documents my decision not to establish a restoration advisory
board (RAB) for Joint Base Andrews (JBA). I based my decision on a
determination that there is not sufficient and sustained community
interest in establishing a RAB for the Air Force environmental
restoration program (ERP) at JBA.
Town Hall meetings may also prove embarrassing
to the Air Force command, especially when members of the community are
afforded the opportunity to hold the microphone and address the public
and the press in attendance. Often, engineers and activists would
directly contradict official statements.
It is understandable why the Air Force prefers highly scripted “Community Conversations”
often featuring 2’ by 3’ professionally designed posters on tripods
along the perimeter of a library room that typically fail to address the
most pertinent environmental issues. Each information panel is “manned”
by trained professionals who adhere to Air Force talking points. This
preferred mode of public interaction allows the delivery of the DOD’s
propaganda campaign, while depriving community members the opportunity
to collectively address each other.
Let’s examine the environmental calamity the Air
Force will likely ignore this Tuesday evening at the Surratts-Clinton
Branch Library.
READ THE REST HERE.
