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The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, with headquarters
at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, is a field operating agency of the
Office of the Air Force Civil Engineer. The center provides Air Force
leaders with the comprehensive expertise they need to protect, preserve,
restore, develop and sustain our nation's environmental and installation
resources.
Mission
The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence is the Air Force's
premiere environmental service center, offering commanders a full range
of technical and professional services in the areas of environmental
restoration, pollution prevention, natural and cultural resources conservation,
design and construction management, and comprehensive planning. AFCEE
also advances excellence in Air Force installations by formulating and
executing sound design and construction management principles.
Personnel
The agency employs 448 personnel, of which 58 are military members.
The majority of its personnel have degrees in engineering and the sciences,
including such diverse fields as architecture, hydrogeology, wildlife
biology and chemistry. AFCEE also relies on contractor employees who
provide technical assistance in computer operations and other areas.
 Organization
A civilian director, a member of the Senior Executive Service, heads
the center. An executive director, an Air Force colonel who also serves
as the commander of the center's military personnel, assists the director.
Environmental Restoration manages environmental cleanup activities
such as remedial investigations, remedial design, remedial actions and
long-term maintenance operations for designated closure and non-closure
bases. The directorate also performs technical quality assurance of environmental
programs, laboratory quality assurance assessments and document reviews.
Additionally, the organization's Technology Transfer Division serves
as the center of expertise for deploying new remediation techniques as
they emerge from the research and development world.
Environmental Conservation and Planning offers the full spectrum
of environmental planning products, services and technical support to
Air Force commanders. The directorate provides assistance to Air Force
headquarters on issues affecting environmental impact analysis practice
and advice. Its areas of expertise include the environmental impact analysis
process and several specialties, such as base comprehensive planning.
The directorate also gives technical support to natural and cultural
resources programs, and is the functional expert for the Air Force civil
engineer in Air Installation Compatible Use Zone planning studies. Additionally,
the organization provides technical oversight and assistance to the Assessment
System for Aircraft Noise program.
Environmental Quality supports installation pollution-prevention
and compliance programs worldwide. It also identifies pollution prevention
and compliance opportunities; develops and executes strategic initiatives
to identify and implement solutions to common Air Force pollution-prevention
and compliance problems; and cross-feeds information on successful programs,
good ideas and proven technologies from throughout the Air Force and
federal government. Additionally, the directorate manages PRO-ACT, the
Air Force's environmental information clearing house, whose staff answers
questions and cross-feeds data free of charge to Air Force personnel
and contractors worldwide.
Design and Construction serves as the functional expert for architecture,
interior designs, landscape architecture and computer-aided design and
geographical information systems. The directorate is also the Air Force
civil engineer center of expertise for design and construction of medical
facilities. It also functions as design and construction agent for assigned
military family housing projects, and provides facility privatization
services, studies and contracting support. In addition, the directorate
manages the planning and design assistance team, Air Force design awards,
and design and construction agent awards programs.
Financial Management and Mission Support provides management
tools and services to the center staff in the areas of resources, information
management, computer and communications support, and graphics. The organization
also programs, budgets and manages five separate AFCEE funding accounts.
The Environmental Contracting Division, which is technically part
of the Brooks Air
Force Base Human Systems Center, provides dedicated support to AFCEE
in the area of environmental contracting.
The Staff Judge Advocate office provides timely legal information,
analysis and guidance to center staff and clients. Attorneys with the
Human System Center's Environmental Acquisition Law Division, based
at AFCEE headquarters, provide a full range of legal services. They focus
primarily on legal issues arising from environmental contracting.
The Directorate of Public Affairs' job is to present AFCEE to
internal and external audiences through news releases, fact sheets, traveling
displays and a quarterly newsmagazine, Center Views.
In addition to the headquarters-based organizations, the center also
has three Regional Environmental Offices located in Dallas (Central
Region), Atlanta (Eastern Region) and San Francisco (Western Region).
These offices are responsible for keeping Air Force commanders advised
of all applicable environmental laws and advocate Air Force needs to
state and federal regulators. They also serve as regional environmental
coordinators with the responsibility of coordinating environmental matters
among all Department of Defense components within their regions.
History
Before the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence was formed,
there was not one centralized office where Air Force commanders could
go for assistance with their installation's environmental programs. The
situation changed in 1991, when the center was approved and created as
a field operating agency of the Office of the Air Force Civil Engineer.
The new center started out with only a handful of people but rapidly
grew. Within a year of opening, the agency had a full service array of
environmental cleanup contracts.
The AFCEE did not have a building of its own when it first began operations.
Employees worked in different facilities throughout the base or in leased
modular buildings. In July 1994, ground was broken for the nearly 73,000
square-foot headquarters building. A year later, a ribbon-cutting ceremony
formally inaugurated the center's new home.
POINT OF CONTACT
Air Force Center for Environmental
Excellence, Directorate of Public Affairs; 8001 Arnold,
Bldg. 642; Brooks Air Force Base, TX 78235-5357; DSN 240-5135 or
(210) 536-5135.
Above Information Courtesy
of United States Air Force
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