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This clip shows the US Clark Air Base on Luzon Island in the Philippines. Military aircraft take off and land as a narrator explains that, over a 45-year period, repair, maintenance and refuelling operations have led to millions of litres of aviation fuel and other toxic chemicals being flushed down drains, causing environmental damage to the area. Drums that would have contained various pollutants lie abandoned across the Base, and a member of the Military Toxics Project asserts that the US military is a serious contributor to the problem of worldwide environmental pollution.

Educational value points

• The clip is an excerpt from a documentary that warns about the possible consequence of US-Australian joint-training bases in Australia on the Australian people and their environment. The 2005 documentary Dirty War reveals the potential for health disasters resulting from the USA’s failure to remove toxic substances associated with a range of military activities in the former US bases at Clark Air Field and Subic Bay on Luzon Island in the Philippines.

• The Clark Air Base on Luzon Island in the Philippines was the USA’s largest operating overseas military base from 1903 to 1991. The Base provided a key staging point for US forces during the Second World War, and until 1975 was the backbone of logistical support during the Vietnam War. At its most active in 1990, it had a permanent population of 15,000. Now known as the Clark Special Economic Zone, it covers an area of 37 sq km and includes the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

• Subic Bay, on the west coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines and formerly the site of the largest US naval base in Asia, is mentioned in the clip. The US Seventh Fleet was stationed at Subic Bay until 1991, when the Philippine Senate rejected terms for renewal of the US lease of the base. The area is now a commercial zone under the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

• The 1992 US General Accounting Office identified bases in the Philippines as being among the most contaminated of all overseas US bases. During the closure process in 1991, the US military failed to follow its own policy guidelines, and left polluting materials behind. The US military failed to provide adequate documentation about the type and extent of the contamination to the Philippine Government. Without this information the Philippine Government began a massive redevelopment plan and unknowingly exposed residents, tourists and construction workers to potentially dangerous levels of toxic contamination.

• In this clip, a member of the Military Toxics Project (MTP) identifies JPA jet fuel, underground storage tanks leaking oils and gases, and degreasers used to clean military hardware as the contaminants that leeched into the groundwater and soil at Clark Air Base. The MTP is a not-for-profit network uniting activists, organisations and communities in the struggle against military pollution.

• In 2002 a coalition of Filipino nationals and US environmental organisations filed a petition to hold the USA to existing laws that give people the right to an assessment of contaminated areas. The intention to sue was filed on behalf of 36 residents from the communities around Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. They claimed that their health was being affected by the toxic pollution left behind by a century of military activities. From 1992 to 2002, dozens of Filipinos living near the former bases have been killed or maimed by contact with unexploded bombs and there has been an increase in cancers in children living on and around the facilities.

• 'Point-of-view’ documentaries are close in style to current affairs programs and present the view of the filmmaker. In Dirty War, director Alan Carter employs techniques such as interviews with defence force experts and environmentalists, as well as close-up shots including those of the rotting, leaking drums, to convey information about the severe environmental damage caused by US military bases in the Philippines. The documentary presents a cautionary message about the potential dangers posed by US bases on Australian shores.

This clip starts approximately 22 minutes into the documentary.

This clip shows the US Clark Air Base on Luzon Island in the Philippines. We see planes landing and officers performing routine maintenance.
Narrator Over a period of 45 years, Clark was one of the busiest airbases outside of the US mainland. Day in and day out, routine repair, maintenance and refuelling activities would have seen potentially millions of litres of aviation fuel, along with solvents, acids, pesticides and other highly toxic chemicals, flushed down drains and seeping into ground water sources.

We see a computer graphic highlighting text from a formal government document.
Narrator How do we know this? Well, first and foremost, the US government’s own general accounting office had conducted a study prior to the pull-out to assess any potential financial liabilities in its Philippines bases. The GAO reported the toxic wastes left at Clark and Subic could approach superfund proportions, a US measurement equating to the most contaminated sites on the mainland.

The scene cuts to an interview with Harry Kelso, interspersed with footage of crates and disused chemical containers.
Harry Kelso, environmental attorney Military facilities are – can be easily thought of as, ah, industrial facilities, and as a result you end up see a lot of chemicals and other pollutants used, uh, in the course of operating business.

Tara Thornton, Military Toxics Project And we realised that the military was the worst polluter in the United States. Out of all of the corporations, the military by far exceeds, in terms of the pollution that they’re putting out, any of these corporations combined.

There is more footage of disused barren-looking spaces with empty barrels lying randomly around.
Tara Thornton So a lot of times, you’ll find at air force bases, you’ll find JP 8 jet fuels, a contaminant that has got into the ground water, underground storage tanks that have leaked oils and gases, a lot of the degreasers that are used to clean the pipes and the you know – mechanics of the airplanes and stuff. So all of that gets into the ground water, um, into the soil, contaminated soils.