by Spc. Brian Trapp
(KUWAIT) -- U.S.-Kuwaiti relations took another cooperative step March 8 at Sabah Al-Ahmad Natural Reserve with the first Desert Environment Day, which marked mission complete for the U.S. military's efforts to clean thousands of square kilometers of desert.
The event brought together members of the Coalition Forces Land Component Command and representatives from the Kuwaiti community and the Kuwaiti Volunteer Society, including Sheikha Amthal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Al Sabah, chairperson of the Kuwaiti Volunteer Society under the Council of Ministers and the sister of the Amir (ruler) of Kuwait.
"It's a great opportunity to show the way the U.S. military has established they care about taking care of the environment," said Matt Tueller, U.S. embassy deputy chief of mission, the embassy's second highest position.
"Kuwait understood the presence was needed at the time, and they've come to know this is the way the U.S. military operates. We shouldered our responsibility and we returned the desert to its original condition."
The project started nearly a year ago when the U.S. military presented the initial plans for the cleaning to the Kuwaitis.
The Americans and Kuwaitis celebrated completion of the project with an event that included presentations about the effects the military had on the environment and the progress of the mission from the beginning to its successful end.
Col. Albert Marin, CFLCC deputy chief of staff for the engineer section, explained what was done to clean the areas once occupied by U.S. and coalition forces.
The area cleaned was the site of 27 military camps covering about 60 percent of Kuwait. About 140,000 troops temporarily occupied those camps before Operation Iraqi Freedom, and they left in a hurry.
"You have to remember these were young kids under combat conditions . . . so they didn't pay as much attention to their trash," Marin said.
The troops" hasty move out of the camps created a considerable amount of work to return the desert to its original state.
Nearly 260 miles of berms were taken down, contaminated soil was treated, about 1,000 plastic culvert pipes were removed to be reused, and thousands of pounds of expended ammunition, garbage and concertina wire were picked up from the deserted tactical assembly areas.
The soil, contaminated by minor oil spills, was cleaned using microorganisms that eat petroleum. Once the oil is gone the organisms die off. Roughly 16,350 cubic yards of soil were cleaned this way.
"We did a pretty good job. It looks like no one has been there," said Maj. Keith Baur, desert cleanup project officer with CFLCC engineers.
Once the cleanup was finished, it was checked through joint inspections by the Kuwaiti Volunteer Society and the U.S. military. The inspections were done from both the air and the ground, and random soil samples from the cleaned areas were taken before the land was declared ready.
"They did a brilliant job working side-by-side with our scientists," said Ahmad Al Mershed, assistant undersecretary for Ministry of Parliament Affairs and member of the Voluntary Work Center, about the soil sampling done during the inspection process.
Now that the sensitive desert environment has returned to its original condition, it can start its road to recovery, said Dr. Abdullah Al-Enizi, one of the scientists involved with the soil testing during the cleanup.
"We are happy there is environmental awareness in the military," Al-Enizi said. "You started the first step [by] brining it up to what it was."
While the desert is clean, it hasn't fully recovered from the damage. That's going to take time.
Al-Eniz said one month of military activity does more damage than other activities, like animal grazing or recreation, can do in two years. The damage is done through soil compaction, plant deterioration and disruption of surface sediment.
But now, he hopes to see the cleaned areas recover within two to three years.
Declaring the mission complete doesn't mean that CFLCC won't continue to be a good steward of the environment, Marin said.
The land also comes with an agreement similar to a five-year warranty, Baur said. If anything if found from U.S. or coalition forces in the areas, the military will come out and clean it.
The cleanup is "just a continuation of the cooperation with the Kuwaitis. Everything we do is through the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense, and so was the cleanup," Marin said. "This doesn't signify the end. There are several camps still occupied, and as long as we are here we will continue . . . We want to be good stewards of the environment."
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2005 09:12 |
| Story ID: | 1335 |
| Location: | KW |
| Web Views: | 46 |
| Downloads: | 24 |
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