The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has concluded that the department hasn’t done enough to document when U.S. troops have been exposed to non-DOD-controlled burn pits during deployments.
The U.S. military has used burn pits—designated open-air areas for burning waste—to dispose of their trash during deployments to the Middle East and Africa throughout the past three decades.
These burn pits have fallen into disfavor in more recent years after U.S. troops stationed near them began to develop a variety of respiratory illnesses.
Lawmakers, and military and Department of Veterans Affairs officials have taken steps to address the harms raised by U.S. military burn pits, expanding reporting requirements and extending benefits to the troops exposed to them.
Despite some policy changes, troops still have been deployed near the pits and, as the DOD inspector general’s office notes, the reporting requirements aren’t always consistent.
The inspector general office’s advisory follows an audit in September 2023 on air quality concerns at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. It follows a broader subsequent review of the department’s burn pit policies between November 2023 and April 2024.
The advisory says an October 2022 DOD policy memo specifically states U.S. military commanders must “Identify any DOD or non-DOD burn pits burning DOD-generated waste up to 4,000 meters from U.S. personnel living, dining, or work areas.”
Left out of the memo’s reporting requirement are non-DOD burn pits disposing of non-DOD-generated waste.
The memo was from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, or OUSD(A&S).
In one instance noted by the inspector general’s office, U.S. troops deployed in Somalia in June of 2023 were stationed near United Nations forces who used a burn pit as their primary method of waste disposal.
The pit was about 800 meters away from the living quarters used by U.S. troops.
The inspector general’s advisory said the only clear course of action was for the commander in charge of those U.S. troops to appeal to the U.N. forces to stop using the burn pit.
The undersecretary’s office told the inspector general it didn’t intend for its October 2022 memo to convey that military commanders shouldn’t report non-DOD burn pits disposing of non-DOD waste.
However, the inspector general’s office pointed to language in the memo explicitly stating the reporting policy: “Excludes sites where individuals are burning solid wastes generated by non-DOD sources.”
The management advisory recommends that the OUSD(A&S) update the reporting policies and require U.S. military commanders to report any burn pits operating within two and a half miles of U.S. troops, not just the ones burning their waste specifically.
The DOD didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about the inspector general’s advisory.
