MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Despite formidable competition from around the world, the Station's Facilities Department Environmental Division received two awards during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. April 30.
The awards received were the Fiscal Year-01 Environmental Quality Overseas Installation Award and the Environmental Quality Overseas Individual Team Award. The first went to the Station and the second went to the team that developed and implemented the environmental projects in Iwakuni.
"This award signifies the real positive, proactive, and forward thinking and goodwill of the people of the Station to come together to do the right things for the right reasons," said Cmdr. Tony Ermovick, Facilities officer. "It took not only the entire team effort by Environmental Department personnel, but also personnel on the Station to contribute to the environmental programs on Station."
The several factors that went into the installation award were programs dealing with corrosion control, the recycling of lead acid batteries, the Station landfill and drinking water.
The corrosion control reforms put in place not only saved $52,009, but also reduced the emissions of chemicals into the air, the amount of paint and solvent used and man-hours needed to do the job, according to James Lessard, Station Environmental production manager and team leader.
"The second area we looked at were lead acid batteries," he added. "We collect them from all over the Station."
By finding a new recycling contractor that would take the batteries as-is for free, with the battery acid intact, they saved $35,000 annually for the Station.
The next area of improvement in the award package submitted to Headquarters Marine Corps was the Station's landfill plan. The new plan has the solid waste compressed and organized to conserve space.
"By implementing this new cell fill method and reduced landfill cover process, we extended our landfill life span by 11 years and saved the installation $1.5 million."
The final part of the installation award dealt with drinking water. Water aboard the Station is regularly tested for contaminants, noted Lessard. A new contractor was located and only essential tests per the Japanese Environmental Governing Standards were done, saving the Station $911,000 over five years.
In addition, the installation of turbidity meters, used to record water data, greatly cut back on manpower and saved $98,800 in the first year.
"It's automated now and we don't have to have people come in on weekends and holidays to take readings," Lessard said.
The team award was for the planning and implementation of the corrosion control, battery recycling project and the new landfill plan.
"In the team category they were looking specifically for pollution prevention initiatives," Lessard added.
This is the first year that the Environmental Division has submitted for the SECNAV award and the completion was worldwide and involved a very stringent process to apply. They first submitted a detailed abstract of Environmental's successes to Headquarters Marine Corps and were then chosen to submit a final Environmental award package to SECNAV following a very detailed outline, noted Lessard.
"It was a great feeling when the Navy message was released stating Iwakuni won two of the SECNAV Environmental Awards," said Lessard. "The division was converted from contractors to civil service employees in 1999 and has quickly come a long way in overall environmental compliance since then."
In FY-01 the department faced a number of challenges, with vacancies for the Environmental director and an Environmental program manager, along with having to compete for environmental funding.
"This was a true 'Team Iwakuni' effort that made this possible," said Lessard. "Having the support and commitment form all levels was vital to our overall success."
"We are very conscientious about our environment," added Lessard. "We are willing to go out there and give 110 percent to make sure we are doing all we can to preserve the environment for the future of our children and our host nation."
"It's a great recognition for Iwakuni," Ermovick said. "It focuses on the effort of all the personnel on Station and their adherence to good solid environmental programs here."