|
|
|
(Yonhap Feature) Returned base remains idle due to pollution
By Lee Chi-dong
UIJEONGBU, South Korea, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- Handed back to South Korea several months ago, a former American military base, Camp Kyle, remains a no-use area.
Only a small group of South Korean soldiers wearing anti-contamination suits and jackboots can be seen as they work to curb the spread of pollution in the vast land in the heart of this city, just north of Seoul.
As a legacy of decades-long occupation, American troops left not only some swathes of haggard grass and outdated barracks, but also contaminated soil and underground water.
Now, it is South Korea's burden to skim oil waste and other toxic chemicals from the site, which will be developed to accommodate houses, factories, or other facilities. The authorities have yet to find a new use for the land, since the result of clean-up efforts remains to be seen.
Returning the base in late May along with eight others mostly in Gyeonggi Province, the U.S. military announced it conducted its own purification work using bioslurping.
The Status of Forces Agreement, however, allows the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to return bases without treating environmental pollutants beyond those posing "known, imminent, and substantial endangerment to human health." Differences between Seoul and Washington on the level of the U.S. cleaning work led to dragged out talks on the return of the bases for years.
It's clear that there is still a long way to go. As a solider put a glass cylinder into a tiny hole in the ground at Camp Kyle, oil about two centimeters high came out in seconds.
"This is nothing," Vice Defense Minister Kim Young-ryong said. "When we took back this base, extracted oil in the same cylinder was about 1.8 or two meters high."
"It is a result of clean-up efforts by these soldiers," added Kim, who visited the base on Wednesday.
Kim stressed that his ministry has the firm will and explicit road map for the clean-up of the bases. He said that the level of contamination of the bases is still under investigation.
"We had no choice but to receive the polluted ones. But we are committed to sanitizing them and utilizing them. It is a way for the military to gain public trust," he told the soldiers, who belong to one of the country's first two environmental units, created in June.
The birth of the units was timed with the handover of the U.S. bases amid harsh protests from civic groups that claimed the compounds are filled with petroleum byproducts and other chemicals, both on the ground and in drinking water. Some progressive lawmakers even compared the bases with oil wells.
The units' primary mission is to make preliminary clean-up efforts and stave off the spread of pollution on the returned bases.
The 500-strong units started the job in September after 100 days of study and field training.
The 117 Environment Battalion covering bases near Seoul said that it has so far collected 5.8 liters of surface oil at Camp Kyle alone.
Lt. Col. Kim Hyung-myeong, the unit's commander, said it will take a long time and huge sums of money to normalize the land.
According to some estimates, the clean-up efforts for the nine bases are expected to cost up to 100 billion won (US$106 million).
The commander admitted that the equipment and skills of his troops are still in their infancy.
"It is only the first step," he said. "We will continue support for the technical training of soldiers, so that they can easily get related jobs after they leave the military."
The environmental units plan to offer assistance to civilian firms that will begin full-scale cleaning work early next year. The contractors will be selected around December.
The commander said the role and mission of his units is becoming more important, with the USFK set to hand over nearly 40 more bases in the next few years.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
|
| |
|
|
Home
