USAG Bavaria “Go Green” CHECK-UP ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM USAG Bavaria Newsletter “Go Green” Issue 5 Spring 2014
What?
Inside this issue: EPAS announcement
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Bird of the year 2014
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Keep your housing area clean
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Recyclilng saves tax $$$
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EPAS essentials
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Nature walk
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Downrange environmental …
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Training land management
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E nvironmental Assessment of the environmental performance P erformance of the USAG Bavaria. assessment covers A ssessment The 20 environmental media areas, e.g. hazardous S ystem materials and waste, medical waste, recycling, spill prevention, and also the status of the Environmental Management System (EMS). Why? The EPAS is a program to determine if environmental laws are met and how and the Environmental Management System (EMS) is working. The EPAS helps to identify environmental deficiencies and resources necessary to correct those deficiencies.
What will be evaluated? Environmental management practices, SOPs, environmental training records, recycling, energy conservation, green procurement, spill prevention, command emphasis and oversight, etc.
Who will do the assessment? A multi-disciplinary team (16 people) from HQ IMCOM-E and Army Environmental Center, Fort Houston, Texas.
Announcement! From 07-17 April, 2014 all organizations and tenants of the US Army Garrison Bavaria will undergo an assessment of their environmental compliance.
More info: AEC Home Page http://aec.army.mil/Services/Support/ EnvironmentalPerformanceAssessmentSystem.aspx Environmental POCs USAG Bavaria (DSN 475-7711) Hohenfels (DSN 466-2258) Garmisch (DSN 440-3828)
THE LAUGHING BIRD — BIRD OF THE YEAR 2014 By Caecilia Meier, DPW, Environmental Division The Green woodpecker (Picus viridis) also called the laughing bird because of his yaffling voice, is the bird of the year 2014. Where to see them—Green woodpeckers live in open woods, parks or gardens with old trees - also in our military communities. You will very likely see them feeding on the ground. Like other woodpeckers, these birds breed in holes they peck out of dead wood. When to see them—All year round.
Female bird feeding on ants
Male bird on tree
Photo: T. Reich
Photo: P. Kühn
What they eat—Ants, ants, and more ants. They use their strong beak to dig into ant colonies and eat the inhabitants.
Green woodpecker’s food
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Bavaria Military“Go Community Newsletter USAG Bavaria Green” “Go Green”
March 2013 Spring 2014
KEEP YOUR HOUSING AREA CLEAN AND GREEN By Tobias, Schwemmer, DPW, Environmental Division
Please help the Garrison stay in compliance with environmental laws by following a few simple rules. Store hazardous materials in suitable storage rooms only. Hazardous substances pose a risk to the environment and to your and your children’s health. Examples of hazardous substances are propane cylinders, aerosol cans, oil cans, vehicle batteries, paints, detergents, and antifreeze. Take ALL your hazardous waste and household hazardous waste to Bldg 394 at Tower Barracks and Bldg 103 at Rose Barracks. Disposal of hazardous waste in regular trash is prohibited by law. Change your car oil in designated areas only. Your housing area is not a suitable place for car maintenance or oil changes. Use the Auto Skill Centers or any other designated area.
Household hazardous waste and electronic waste disposal guide for Tower Barracks and Rose Barracks
Green Procurement Green products are
Contact Information Housing Division: Mr. Gerhard Engelhardt, DSN 475-5312 gerhard.engelhardt.ln@mail.mil Environmental Division: Mrs. Elisabeth Prem, DSN 476-2932 elisabeth.a.prem.ln@mail.mil
Energy-efficient Biobased Environmentally Improperly stored hazardous substances in Family Housing areas.
Preferable Low or non-toxic Recycled content Water-efficient
RECYCLING SAVES TAX $$$ By Reinhold Fröhlich, DPW, Hohenfels Environmental Branch
Improving your recycling rate will increase how much your community receives through the Residential Recycling Incentive (RRI) Program and decreases the amount your community spends on waste disposal. A few recycling facts: Recycling is the law in Germany and the USAG Bavaria Garrison Commander’s Policy! Disposal of yellow bag is free of charge. Disposal of one ton of trash costs approx $ 350! Page 2
$$$ 350.00 = disposal costs for one ton of trash. Vacuum cleaner goes into the e-waste container at the recycling yard, bldg. 25
Hohenfels Military Community Sort Facility/Recycling Center Bldg. 25, Camp Nainhof
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Newsletter USAG Bavaria “Go Green”
Spring 2014
EPAS ESSENTIALS Assembled by Elisabeth Prem, DPW, Environmental Division Things you need to know or do for the EPAS:
E nvironmental P erformance A ssessment S ystem
Know the EMS Policy, know where to find it (e.g. Garrison home page
Follow environmental SOPs and guidelines. Recycling guides, environmental SOP for tenant units, environmental SOP for training units, household hazardous waste guide, hazardous waste disposal guide and others can be found on the Garrison sharepoint portal https://home.army.mil/sites/eur/Ger/ gra/dpw/Environmental/SitePages/Home.aspx.
www.grafenwoehr.army.mil/policies.aspx)
Know the Garrison’s top environmental issues: - Energy saving - Green procurement - Proper handling of hazardous materials
Take environmental training, if needed for your job; keep records. Examples are Environmental Officer Training, green procurement training, spill training, natural resources training.
EARTH DAY 2014 Visit the environmental booth at the ACS Kinderfest Friday, 25 April 2014, 1530 — 1830 Wild B.O.A.R Complex Tower Barracks, Bldg. RC 600
Create your own LAND ART
Dispose of trash properly!
What can you do to contribute? - Save energy - Buy green products - Properly recycle your waste - Handle hazardous materials/wastes properly. - Avoid spills and report spills immediately, if they occur.
Use secondary containments.
ENJOY NATURE IN SPRING By Caecilia Meier, DPW, Environmental Division
In the immediate vicinity of Rose Barracks you’ll find the Beaver Trail. The trail is approx. 2.5 km long and leads through a very scenic terrain. You will find informational boards on several topics, e.g. the European beaver and bogs/swamps in Germany. Animal species that call this area their home are the beaver, common toad, brown frog, moor frog, Kingfisher, Egret, Grey heron, and others. Access: Use exit “Wernberg-Köblitz” on interstate A 93, go direction Hirschau on highway B14, turn right onto ST 2123 to Großschönbrunn, follow B299 in Northern direction, turn left to ST 2166 towards Vilseck. Starting point is a parking area located to the right of the road (North of ST 2166).
Male moor frogs turn blue during mating time Photo: Wikipedia
Aerial view of nature trail. Photo: Bayerische Staatsforsten
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Newsletter USAG Bavaria “Go Green”
Spring 2014
DOWNRANGE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION By Colleen Bergmanis, TSAE, ITAM
Soldier Field Card Apps
Ensuring optimal training capability is the responsibility of not only those managing the land but also of those using the land, and here is where an educational component becomes critical.
Besides hardcopies, Soldier Field Card i Phone and Android phone Apps are also available and can be found via your favorite App store by searching: ‘JMTC’ and ‘Soldier Field Card’.
Environmental SOPs
Available in Foreign Languages
Documents such as the Training Unit Environmental SOP, You Spill You Dig, and the Red Plan were generated specifically for this purpose; to educate the soldier on the five ‘w’s of how to manage their footprint on the land while using the training area during an exercise.
Every US Army training area within the USAREUR footprint has a specific Soldier Field Card and many of these have been translated into the languages of those NATO and partner nation militaries, which frequent the respective training installation.
Soldier Field Cards
Produced by ITAM, Soldier Field Cards are distributed via all US Army military installation Training Support Centers (TSCs).
Another such informational is the Soldier Field Card. The pocket-sized card provides MEDEVAC steps, safety and POC information, a map indicating re-fueling pads and potable water points, as well as basic Dos and Don’ts of training land utilization.
For more information please contact your local TSC or the USAREUR Sustainable Range Program at: usareur.srp.contact@us.army.mil and https://srp.usareur.army.mil
i Phone
USAREUR Soldier Field Card App Android
TRAINING LAND MANAGEMENT By Colleen Bergmanis, TSAE, ITAM Going back in time, let’s say fifty years, back to the late 1960’s, the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas looked nothing like what our soldiers see today. Cold-war military training exercises had decimated the natural landscape to such an extent that the training areas are remembered as surreal ‘moonscapes’. Eroded top soil washed off bare land and small punctuated mud flows continually exceeded load capacities of local steams. The result: significantly reduced training capacity and flooding of down-river German communities with dirty, muddy water. Training capability was compromised as tanks tracked through meter-thick mud, continually requiring recovery missions while in our neighboring towns, water flowed up and over creek beds, through streets and sometimes into yards and houses. Needless to Page 4
say a land management strategy was desperately lacking. The result was a unique collaborative land sustainment program between the German Federal Real Estate Office (Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben or BImA) and the US Army and today not only are the dramatic moonscapes a thing of the past, many of us can’t even imagine what that could look like. The amazing transformation is due entirely to the very significant initial efforts of the German Federal Forestry Office and our own DPW Environmental Division. And since the 1990’s, to the additional efforts of the US Army’s Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) program as well. Each of these three organizations contributes to the continued management of the training areas in one way or another but success is sustained by their collaborated efforts.
Erosion due to military training
After re-seeding