I was formerly the supervisor of the Environmental Compliance Section of the Facility Engineer of the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. I personally met with Colonel Willie Snow, Marine Corps Inspector General (IG) for Okinawa, to inform him of serious environmental violations by the Marine Corps.
These were such issues as: the deliberate dumping of diesel fuel into a ditch which went off-base into the Japanese residential area; a serious chemical fire at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma which released toxic fumes; almost losing a waste oil disposal contract which would have cost the Marine Corps over $700,000 in additional disposal charges; and mismanagement and gross negligence in not setting up an efficient program for reacting to spills of petroleum-oil-lubricants and hazardous substances.
These issues went to the very core of protecting the environment as well as protecting the health and safety of U.S. Personnel and the Japanese public at large. This is a very serious issue on Okinawa where the government there and the Japanese public want the U.S. Bases removed.
Since the meeting with Col Snow, absolutely no action was taken by the Marine Corps to investigate the serious allegations which I had made. No witnesses were ever contacted, and I was never contacted for follow-up information.
Col Snow and his superior, Col Larkin Conaster, and the commanding general (I don't remember his name) all participated in a conspiracy of knowing endangerment of the health and safety of military personnel, American and Japanese civilian personnel and tens of thousands of Japanese civilians in Okinawa. Their inaction to investigate my charges also placed the environment at risk. They engaged in illegal conspiratorial activities to conceal this information from employees and the Japanese public.
They violated the following:
Uniform Code of Military Justive (UCMJ):
Sec. Art. 881.81 Conspiracy
Sec. Art. 934. Art 134 General Article
Finally, they did not carry out their responsibilities as mandated in Title 10 U.S.C. And SECNAVINST 5430.57F
Let the truth be known. Let the world know this.
As a warning to other potential whistleblowers in the Federal Government, do not expect the OSC or the MSPB to help you. Your best ally would be an organization like Public Employees for Environmental Reposibility (PEER).
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