Letter to Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army - Camp Minden Cleanup

Letter

July 17, 2014

Honorable Katherine Hammack
Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army
110 Army Pentagon Room 3E464
Washington, D.C. 20310

Dear Assistant Secretary Hammack:

I am following up the letter that I wrote you earlier this month which requested specific answers regarding the U.S. Department of the Army's role in properly disposing of propellant and other explosive material that is stored at Camp Minden.

As you know, on March 18, 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directed the Army to address the abandoned explosives and propellant stored on the grounds of Camp Minden in Minden, LA. After your meeting today on Capitol Hill, it is my understanding that you still disagree with this direction and continue dragging your feet, even though this has been declared a State of Emergency. The EPA, in a written determination on July 16, has finalized the Order, which determines it is the Army's legal and civic responsibility to act and to clean up the material.

Letters and meetings have not led to a solution and apparently mean nothing to you, so to encourage the Army to finally act, I will be blocking the nomination of Alissa M. Starzak to be General Counsel of the Department of the Army.

Once you have formally agreed to move forward and properly clean up Camp Minden, I will release my hold.

Sincerely,

David Vitter
United States Senate

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