USFJ environmental awards announced
Stars and Stripes Published: May 27, 2010

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Four U.S. military bases in Japan received environmental excellence awards for 2009 during a ceremony here Wednesday.

Recipients of the U.S. Forces Japan Installation Excellence Awards were:

• Pollution Prevention: Kadena Air Base. The base reduced its inventory of materials that deplete ozone, used cooking oil to power vehicles and equipment at the base recycling center, and conducted a campaign where volunteer scuba divers removed trash from the Kadena Town seawall.

• Natural Resource Protection: Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka. Among the programs cited were installing low-illumination street lights to protect a known firefly mating area, and cooperating with the Kanagawa Fisheries Technology Center to release 400 young flounders into waters around the base.

• Host Nation Coordination Award: U.S. Army Garrison Japan. The USAG-J Environmental Program oversaw community and public activities that minimized impacts to the environment and ecosystems, maintaining, promoted biodiversity, preserved habitats, and managed natural recreational areas.

• Environmental Compliance Award: Marine Corps Bases Japan. MCBJ conducted a benchmark environmental compliance evaluation of Marine bases. Updates were made to MCBJ’s PCB elimination, pest management and hazardous waste management plans.

More Information:
http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific...d-1.104446

CFAY Receives 2010 Environmental Excellence Awards
By Paul Long CFAY Public Affairs

Commander Fleet Activities, Yokosuka (CFAY) won the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) Host Nation Coordination and Pollution Prevention awards for calendar year 2010. The award recognizes CFAY’s commitment to environmental management support ensuring the protection of Yokosuka and the surrounding area.

After divers planted eel grass, Sulivans Elementary School 4th-graders, release young marbled flounder into Green Marina May 16. The project has become an annual event for the students to help and learn about environmental issues like improving the local marine ecosystem. Events like the eel grass planting contributed to CFAY being the 2010 USFJ Host Nation Coordination and Pollution Prevention awards, according to NAVFAC FE Environmental Technician Ryouko Araki. Photo by Joe Schmitt.

“The award was presented to NAVFAC FE (Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Far East ) on Aug. 15,” said Delphine Lee, a supervisory environmental engineer at NAVFAC FE. “CFAY won two of the four awards, the other award was for pollution prevention,” Lee said.

According to Ryouko Araki, an environmental technician with NAVFAC FE, this award exemplifies the harmonious relationship between the base and the local community.

“I think our Earth Day events helped us to win this award,” Araki said. “We collaborated with the Kanagawa Prefectural Fisheries Technology Center, more than 100 Japanese and American Girl Scouts, the Yokosuka Bubble Club (scuba) and 4th-graders from Sullivans Elementary School.

Eel grass helps to naturally clean the marina and that this project was a great learning opportunity for school children. “We started this event three years ago and it’s become a custom. I hope this program will continue,” Araki said.

According to Lee the NAVFAC FE Adopt-A-Monument and base historical and cultural tours for both Japanese and Americans were integral parts of Host Nation Coordination Program.

“The Adopt-A-Monument program is a pretty big deal and we’ve been doing it for three years now,” said Lee. “It’s really volunteers adopting an individual monument. It promotes a group feeling, a sense of pride over the cultural resources of the base.”

Araki also said that CFAY Environmental runs the Adopt-A-Monument program that participants are responsible for monthly cleaning of the areas surrounding the assigned monuments March through September. “We have two monuments that are open for new volunteers due to former volunteers who have transferred,” Araki said.

Lee said that CFAY Environment is looking for more volunteers for all of their programs, not just the Adopt-A-Monument program. Contact Araki at 243-5136 for further details.