Diminished operational security.
Ineffective tactical operations.
The creation of safety hazards to personnel and equipment.
An increase in training, maintenance costs, and litigation.
There are many benefits of environmental protection:
Enhance combat readiness.
Ensure mission completion.
Conserve the fighting strength.
Protect the environment.
Reduce the Army's and nation's current and future cost for environmental restoration.
An excellent way to communicate the consequences of noncompliance to subordinates is to explain, that
noncompliance under the Federal Facilities Compliance Act (FFCA) can empower federal and state regulatory
agencies to impose fines on federal agencies (including the Army) for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) violations. Penalties and intervention can take any of the following forms:
Fines.
Damage awards.
Intervention from the EPA and other federal, state, and regional agencies.
An increase in monitoring from federal agencies.
Unit leaders and their subordinates are required to comply with all federal, state, and local laws to protect the
environment. Violators can be held personally liable for cleanup costs and civil or criminal penalties. Violators
include the actual person who causes the contamination and the commanders, supervisors, and leaders who
allowed the contamination to occur and didn't take immediate action to prevent or correct the occurrence. The
penalty can be up to ,000 for each day in violation and/or up to two years in jail.
After Action Report. After Action Reports (AARs) are an excellent platform for reporting environmental
considerations that can be incorporated into everyday work life through training, SOP, orders, mission planning,
etc. Upon completion of an exercise or other training function always remember to include any environmental
considerations, good or bad, into the report.
Environmental Laws And Policies. Local unit SOP and policies should be explained and available
immediately upon arrival at post. These are often the most stringent and all-inclusive as they tend to combine
federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.
The local and state environmental laws vary by region and should be available to all subordinates as an
important reference within the lab. The major federal laws and regulations can be found in FM 20-400.
Subordinates should be routinely quizzed and observed in the performance of their duties to ensure that they are
in some way familiar with the laws and regulations that are applicable to them.
The host nation environmental laws and regulations may be very numerous and complex, the same as the U.S.,
or almost nonexistent. You may be in a foreign country where the penalties can be very tough. It is a good idea
to ensure that your subordinates are familiar with the laws and regulations of the host nation.
Environmental Risk Assessments. The identification of environmental risks associated with a given
mission or training exercise is one of the most important functions you perform as a supervisor or unit leader. In
the Army, as you all know, much importance is placed on environmental stewardship and the idea of identifying
possible risks ahead of time. There are three major phases of environmental risk identification associated with
training missions: actions before training, actions during training, and actions after training.
Environmental risk assessment allows the commanders and unit leaders to address environmental
considerations using the following steps:
Identify the hazards to the environment during mission analysis. Environmental hazards are conditions
that have the potential to pollute the air, soil, water, and/or degrade natural/cultural resources.
Assess probability of environmental damage/violations using environmental risk assessment matrices.
Make decisions and develop measures to reduce high risks.
Brief chain of command (to include the installation environmental office if applicable) and appropriate
decision maker on proposed plans and residual risk.
Implement environmental measures by integrating them into plans, orders, SOPs, training performance
standards, and rehearsals.
Supervise and enforce environmental standards. Train to the standard.
2-3
QM 5183
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