The EMS Implementation Team identified five environmental objectives for the teams to focus on throughout the next few months. Some targets will be addressed for several years to keep Fort Detrick up to date environmentally.

"We want to reduce the chances of becoming an environmental footprint and to reduce Fort Detrick's chances of becoming a potential environmental impact," Mayles said.

The current objectives are to reduce air emissions, reduce water resource impacts, reduce energy consumption, increase resource conservation and recovery and improve environmental education and outreach. At future meetings the teams will discuss their assigned objective and make suggestions for necessary changes.

Air emissions, addressed in the first objective, include particulate matter, combustion gases, and gasoline and chlorine storage tanks. The target for this objective is to assemble an air quality team and resources to identify opportunities for reducing air emissions and to produce a list of recommendations for improvement.

The water resources in the second objective include sewage, sediment, drinking water and waste handling. For this objective there are three targets: to assemble a water resources team and resources to identify opportunities for reducing impacts to water resources. Second is to increase the environmental and safety offices' participation in pre-construction meetings to 100 percent of installation projects. The third target is to achieve remedies for all restoration sites listed in the performance based contract.

The third objective addresses energy consumption. It includes electricity and petroleum-based fuels. To reduce energy consumption, EMS will gather an energy team and resources to identify energy conservation opportunities.

The fourth objective is to increase resource conservation and recovery. From pollution prevention to office supplies, the Objective Team will attempt to divert at least 40 percent of the solid waste stream through recycling.

The fifth and final objective is dedicated to increasing storm drain stenciling to 100 percent. Storm drain stenciling is a project with the natural resources manager in which local Scouts use stencils to paint "Do Not Dump, Chesapeake Watershed" signs on the storm drains around post to prevent water pollution.

The main goal is to inform people on post not to dump hazardous materials down storm drains. Currently the stenciling is on all of the storm drains on the post and the EMS Objective Teams' goal is to maintain that percentage.

According to an EMS Objective Teams information sheet, participating in these target programs will "minimize mission downtime through proactive management of potential environmental aspects, minimize environmental impacts and increase installation environmental awareness."

Preventing incidents from occurring will allow the installation to keep resources and personnel focused on accomplishing their missions instead of cleaning up after releases of potentially hazardous materials.

The Army directs that installations follow the International Organization for Standardization, which requires environmental objectives to be targeted and defined. The EMS Objective Teams information sheet also states that the Environmental Objective Teams are necessary to "provide input from installation subject matter experts to ensure that Fort Detrick has environmental objectives and targets that are feasible and practical."

These objectives will be met through four phases, which begins this month.

During phase one, which is already in progress, objective team leaders will facilitate their team. Each team will develop their own list of recommended targets and target dates to be presented in December. Phase one will also include reviewing active and inactive installation programs and developing new ideas for meeting environmental objectives.

Phase two, January and February 2006, will be dedicated to developing environmental target programs to achieve the Environmental Quality Control Committee-approved objectives and targets. The EMS Objective Teams will have quarterly progress report meetings to ensure installation-wide performance in response to the objectives and targets.

Phase three, March through June 2006, is an installation-wide implementation of environmental target programs.

The fourth phase, from July 2006 and beyond, will consist of reviews and monitoring of active environmental target programs and developing new environmental programs as necessary.

"We are looking for more participation and feedback from installation personnel," Mayles said. Throughout the next year Fort Detrick will perform internal audits and an Army organization will perform external audits to make sure the regulations are being met.

For more information about the EMS Objective Teams, or what you can do to conserve resources on Fort Detrick, contact the EMO at 301-619-0023 or visit their Web site at www.detrick.army.mil/ usag/ipo/em/index.cfm.