ET: This is another of those issues where a little compromise and common sense can result in a bit more protection for the environment with no harm to the military.

I am not anti military. I am, in fact a disabled U.S. Navy veteran. I was raised in Bremerton and saw first hand the wanton disregard for the environment shown by the U.S. Navy. For most of the history of the shipyard all sewage was dumped, untreated, directly into a shallow bay that has little natural flushing. It took environmental groups years to get the navy to stop dumping raw sewage into the bay. Now the sewage goes into a pipe to a sewage treatment facility. Did this change hurt the Navy? Not a bit.

Can one government agency enforce rules on another? Most certainly! We have done so for many years. Many times the EPA has fines cities, counties and states. I see no reason why they can’t enforce rules on the military. In fact I know they routinely do.

I think the military is no better or worse than any other large organization. Some leaders are excellent stewards of OUR land, others are not. I see no harm in asking the military protect our land and water while they are protecting our freedom. The two are not mutually exclusive.