Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the oldest U.S. Navy shore facility. Founded in 1799 on land set aside by George Washington, the Navy Yard first served as a shipbuilding facility. During WWl the Yard housed manufacturing facilities which produced various guns used in the war. Presently, the Navy Yard is home to a variety of activities including the Headquarters, Naval District Washington (NDW). NDW functions as the military coordinator for most of the navy units in the Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland areas. The Navy Yard has been designated a National Historical Landmark by the National Park Service and features the Navy Museum, the homeport for Navy History.
The Navy Yard is located on 66.3 acres in southeast DC and is bordered on the north by residential housing, on the south by the Anacostia River, on the west by the General Services Administration, and on the east by an industrial area. The Yard provides administrative support for many Naval services in Washington and includes office space and a museum.
In 1961 Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, recognizing that the Washington Navy Yard was the Navy's oldest and one of its most historic sites, persuaded Secretary of the Navy John B. Connally to establish the U.S. Naval Historical Display Center (later the U.S. Navy Memorial Museum, then the Navy Museum).
The largest Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, project to be performed at the Washington Navy Yard was recently completed. The Naval Sea Systems Command, or NAVSEA for short, has been relocated to the Washington Navy Yard from its former location in Crystal City, Virginia. The NAVSEA Headquarters BRAC project included renovation of two historic buildings, demolition of five buildings, and construction of one new building and a new eight-level parking garage. The newly completed NAVSEA BRAC project provides office space for 4,100 people, parking for 1,500 cars, and upgraded roads and utilities at the Navy Yard. The estimated cost for this design/build project was about $130 million.
During an earlier BRAC project, the headquarters of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and Office of the Judge Advocate General were relocated to the Washington Navy Yard from Alexandria, Virginia. This construction project involved the renovation and adaptive reuse of four historic buildings to provide space for about 500 Navy personnel. Another new facility at the Navy Yard is a five-level parking garage that was built to support some of the personnel who arrived under the various BRAC actions. The new garage was built on the site of a former parking lot and can accommodate 1,000 cars.
The Yard's previous history of military industrial activities has left behind old contaminated waste sites. Studies conducted from 1995 to 1997 have identified a number of sites that have resulted in potential releases into the environment.
The Washington Navy Yard is located adjacent to the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. about 15 city blocks from the Capital. The Anacostia is a tributary to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. It encompasses 170 square miles of watershed in Maryland and Washington. Many organizations including the Anacostia River Watershed Restoration Committee, Sierra Club, and federal agencies such as the US Army Corp of Engineers, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are involved in restoration of the Anacostia. Ongoing studies by several organizations have raised concerns about the presence of PCBs in the river and its sediments. Since PCBs are a group of 209 different compounds (congeners) and the toxic characteristics of each of these chemicals varies, a measure of total PCBs may not be a clear comparison of the hazards associated with PCB contamination of portions of the River.
In March 1997, the Navy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) negotiated a Consent Order under section 7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for the Washington Navy Yard. The RCRA Consent Order directs the process that the Navy will follow to conduct a RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) and a Corrective Measures Study (CMS). (See also " National Priorities List and Federal Facilities Agreement.")
In April 1998, the Navy, the Department of Justice, and the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund negotiated a Consent Decree, to settle a civil suit. The suit was filed because of concerns that the Washington Navy Yard and the Southeast Federal Center (formerly part of the Navy Yard during its industrial period) could be contributing to pollution in the Anacostia River through contaminated stormwater discharges, and that contamination at these properties could be a risk to human health and the environment. Under the Consent Decree, the Navy (and the Justice Department, for the Southeast Federal Center) agreed to accelerated timetables for specific cleanup actions.
BRAC 2005
In its 2005 BRAC Recommendations, DoD recommended to realign Naval Station Newport, RI, and the Washington Navy Yard by consolidating Naval Reserve Readiness Command Northeast with Naval Reserve Readiness Command Mid-Atlantic and relocating the consolidated commands to Naval Station, Norfolk, VA. This recommendation would enhance the Navy's long-standing initiative to accomplish common management and support on a regionalized basis, by consolidating and collocating reserve readiness commands with the installation management Regions. This collocation would also align management concepts and efficiencies and would ensure a reserve voice at each region as well as enablle future savings through consolidation of like functions. This recommendation would result in an increase in the average military value for the remaining Naval Reserve Readiness Commands and would ensure that each of the installation management Regions had an organization to manage reserve matters within the region. Assuming no economic recovery, DoD estimated that this recommendation could result in a maximum potential reduction of 62 jobs (37 direct jobs and 25 indirect jobs) over the 2006-2011 period in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Metropolitan Division (less than 0.1 percent).
In another recommendation, DoD would realign Washington Navy Yard and two other installations by relocating all mobilization functions to Fort Dix, NJ, designating it as Joint Pre-Deployment/Mobilization Site Dix/McGuire/Lakehurst. This recommendation was part of a larger recommendation to consolidate mobilization funcitons at several other sites. This recommendation would realign eight lower threshold mobilization sites to four existing large capacity sites and transforms them into Joint Pre-Deployment/ Mobilization Platforms. This action would be expected to have the long-term effect of creating pre- deployment/mobilization centers of excellence, leverage economies of scale, reduce costs, and improve service to mobilized service members. These joint platforms would not effect any of the services units that a have specific unit personnel/equipment requirements necessitating their mobilization from a specified installation. The realigned, lower thresholds mobilization sites had significantly less capacity and many less mobilizations.
In another recommendations, DoD would realign Bolling AFB, DC, by relocating the installation management functions to Naval District Washington at the Washington Navy Yard, DC, establishing Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling-Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), DC.
All installations employed military, civilian, and contractor personnel to perform common functions in support of installation facilities and personnel. All installations executed these functions using similar or near similar processes. Because these installations shared a common boundary with minimal distance between the major facilities or are in near proximity, there was significant opportunity to reduce duplication of efforts with resulting reduction of overall manpower and facilities requirements capable of generating savings, which would be realized by paring unnecessary management personnel and achieving greater efficiencies through economies of scale. Intangible savings would be expected to result from opportunities to consolidate and optimize existing and future service contract requirements. Additional opportunities for savings would also be expected to result from establishment of a single space management authority capable of generating greater overall utilization of facilities and infrastructure. Further savings would be expected to result from opportunities to reduce and correctly size both owned and contracted commercial fleets of base support vehicles and equipment consistent with the size of the combined facilities and supported populations. Regional efficiencies achieved as a result of Service regionalization of installation management would provide additional opportunities for overall savings as the designated installations are consolidated under regional management structures. The quantitative military value score validated by military judgment was the primary basis for determining which installation was designated as the receiving location.
In its 2005 BRAC Recommendations, DoD recommended to realign Washington Navy Yard, DC, by disestablishing the Space Warfare Systems Center Charleston, SC, detachment Washington Navy Yard and assign functions to the new Space Warfare Systems Command Atlantic Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, VA. These recommended realignments and consolidations would provide for multifunctional and multidisciplinary Centers of Excellence in Maritime C4ISR. This recommendation would also reduce the number of technical facilities engaged in Maritime Sensors, Electronic Warfare, & Electronics and Information Systems RDAT&E from twelve to five. This, in turn, would reduce overlapping infrastructure increase the efficiency of operations and support an integrated approach to RDAT&E for maritime C4ISR. Another result would also be reduced cycle time for fielding systems to the warfighter. Assuming no economic recovery, this recommendation could result in a maximum potential reduction of 302 jobs (172 direct jobs and 130 indirect jobs) over the 2006-2011 period in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Metropolitan Division (less than 0.1 percent).
In another recommendation, DoD recommended to realign Detroit Arsenal, MI, by relocating Program Management and Direction of Sea Vehicle Development and Acquisition to Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, DC. This recommendation would position technical sites for jointness through co-location with functions at the receiving locations. It would also increase efficiency by consolidating program management of Sea Vehicle Development and Acquisition (D&A) from three sites to two principal sites. The consolidation and co-location would leverage existing concentration of research, design and development, and acquisition support capabilities residing within the US Navy Headquarters and Warfare Center RD&A infrastructure. Program management for D&A would be at the Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard. In support of joint and transformational initiatives, this recommendation would relocate management and direction of Theater Support Vessels (TSV) and other Sea Vehicle/Watercraft programs for US Army to the Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard. Consolidation of all program management of Sea Vehicle Programs at the Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard would co-locate these functions and align with related program offices supporting Sea Vehicle Weapons and Combat systems, Hull Mechanical and Electrical, C4I integration and related sea vehicle equipment and support functions. This would also place it near the principal technical direction and development agent for sea vehicles located at Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division in Bethesda, MD.
This recommendation would be consistent with the existing partnership collaboration between the USA and the USN on Theater Support Vessels as reflected in a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Army Program Executive Office (PEO) for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS & CSS) and the US Navy PEO for Ships Systems. The recommendation would enhance synergy by consolidating Sea Vehicle functions to major sites, preserve healthy competition, leverage existing infrastructure, minimize environmental impact, and effect reasonable homeland security risk dispersal. The recommendation would increase efficiency by making a robust acquisition organization available to all DoD Sea Vehicle and watercraft program requirements and will increase efficiency by reducing overall manpower requirements.
