GAO Report Issued On Military Training and Environmental Exemptions

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on DoD's use of environmental exemptions related to military training range activities. For their data collection effort, the GAO visited 17 installations and interviewed several top-level DoD and Regulatory officials. In the report, the GAO stated they "found no instances where DOD's use of exemptions from the Endangered Species Act or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has adversely affected the environment". The GAO did not assess DoD's use of the Marine Mammal Protection Act exemption.

The GAO also concluded that in general, the DoD services were very resourceful in how they employed "a variety of measures and conservation activities to mitigate the effects of training activities on the natural resources located on DOD lands." The GAO also concluded that Regulatory officials interviewed reported that "DOD has done an effective job protecting and preserving endangered species and habitats on its installations".

On the needs improvement side, the GAO concluded that the DoD has not built a solid enough business case to warrant the implementation of additional environmental exemptions including Clean Air Act, RCRA, and CERCLA exemptions. The full GAO report can be downloaded using the link below.