IN MEMORY OF CRIZEL JANE VALENCIA (1993-2000)

“Her death will only be in vain if…the government will continue to ignore the toxic waste problem.”
- Dina Valencia, mother of Crizel

Crizel Valencia, the 6-year old “toxic warrior,” died on February 25, 2000 after a long battle with leukemia believed to be linked with toxic contamination left behind by the U.S. military at former Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

WRITE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS & DEFENSE SECRETARY RUMSFIELD TODAY

To your Members of Congress:

·         Ask them to request the General Accounting Office to conduct an investigation of outstanding environmental problems that need to be addressed as a result of base closure in the Philippines.

         Urge them to support any future legislation to clean up the former U.S. bases and protect public health.

To Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld:

         Tell him you are aware that residents living near Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Facility have requested for a Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection of the base areas.

         Urge him to move quickly to conduct the investigation and to remove the toxic hazards that thousands of people are exposed to.

Note: In order for letters to be effective, they should be firm but polite and respectful, focused on the specific request, and should avoid sweeping or inaccurate statements.

1)   Your Senators
(a complete list is available at http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm)

   US Senate, Washington, DC 20510

2)   Your Representative
(a complete updated list is available at www.house.gov/writerep)

   US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515

3)   Sec. Donald H. Rumsfeld

Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000

1 -  When the U.S. military closed down its bases in the Philippines in 1992, they left behind toxic contamination that is now seeping into the environment, threatening the lives of thousands of people in surrounding communities.  Today, more than one hundred people have died from illnesses believed to be linked to the toxic waste.  Despite calls by community and environmental groups for U.S. accountability, the United States refuses to take responsibility for this tragedy.

2 -  In 1992, the General Accounting Office (an investigative arm of the U.S. Congress) released a report “Military Base Closures: U.S. Financial Obligations in the Philippines” which identified “significant environmental damage” at the bases in the Philippines, adding that cleanup costs could approach “Superfund proportions.”  In 1991, the GAO issued “Hazardous Waste: Management Problems Continue at Overseas Bases” which concluded that many overseas bases, including those in the Philippines, had poor hazardous waste management practices resulting in hundreds of potential environmental pollution claims. This report was a follow-up to a classified study in 1986 revealing that overseas bases often did not handle or dispose of toxic waste in a manner that would protect health and the environment.

Our request to Congress is to update the previous GAO studies, most importantly, to investigate ongoing environmental problems in the Philippines and recommend ways to address the problem.  We could also ask Congress to determine if the U.S. military fulfilled the requirements under its own DOD guidance existing at that time.  The purpose for a GAO study is to help us raise awareness among members of Congress through their own investigative office and to use the report to push for future legislation towards a cleanup of the former bases.  

3 - Under a provision of the Superfund law, affected communities may petition the government to conduct a so-called “Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection” (PA/SI) of a contaminated site.  Residents around both Clark and Subic submitted such a petition to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy in 2000 but the U.S. military rejected the petition.  The new Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has the authority to reverse that decision and go ahead with a PA/SI thereby taking an important step towards addressing this urgent problem. 

The PA/SI is important to our campaign for several reasons: (1) it determines the extent of contamination thereby allowing affected communities and NGOs to take vital steps to protect health; (2) it provides a basis for pushing for future legislation towards a cleanup of the former bases; and (3) it is a necessary first step before conducting a systematic cleanup of the toxic sites.