 Technicians conduct a ground-penetrating radar survey to search for barrels of a highly toxic defoliant allegedly buried at Camp Carroll, a U.S. army logistics base in Waegwan, Chilgok County, 216 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Thursday. South Korea and the United States are on a joint investigation after American veterans claimed they buried large amounts of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll in 1978. / AP-Yonhap |
No confirmation that chemicals moved out of country
By Kim Tae-jong
A joint investigation team from the government and the U.S. military began an on-site inspection inside Camp Carroll in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, Thursday to check whether any toxic chemicals are buried there.
The team of 16 Koreans and 10 Americans is co-chaired by Korean civilian expert Ok Gon, a professor of Bookyung University, and Colonel Joseph F. Birchmeier of the U.S. Army.
The team used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) devices to try and locate drums of toxic chemicals in suspected locations and took groundwater samples to check for water contamination.
They will focus their investigation on the vicinity of the helipad, Area 41 and Area D, locations where allegedly hundreds of drums containing toxic chemicals were buried in the 1970s.
The U.S. military has not been able to confirm yet whether the chemicals were been moved out of the country.
Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army and lead investigator into the claims, said it was unclear whether the substances had been moved outside the camp or not, and, if so, how they had been disposed of.
No evidence backing the allegations of Agent Orange burial has been found, but the U.S. military confirmed last week that a “large number” of drums containing pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried at Camp Carroll in 1978 but were then moved off the base over the following two years.
The investigation came as both sides reached an agreement on the composition of the joint team and investigative measures during an environmental subcommittee meeting under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on Wednesday.
It plans to complete the investigation on the helipad by June 21 and move on to other spots.
After the GPR survey, further soil coring and soil contamination investigations can be conducted on anomaly and non-penetrable areas, according to the agreement.
Check on camps in Seoul
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced it will conduct a separate investigation in the areas around U.S. military camps in Seoul to check for environmental pollution, following allegations that it is at a worrisome level at many facilities here.
“As it is now alleged that various toxic chemicals including Agent Orange were buried in Camp Carroll, the city government has also decided to check environment pollution levels around U.S. military bases in Seoul,” an official said.
The city will check underground water samples from 10 spots in the neighboring areas of the camps from June 7 to 30 to see if there has been any contamination.
There are 12 U.S. military camps in Seoul, 10 of which are monitored by the city government and 2 by the Ministry of Defense.
“We have regularly checked for water contamination near U.S. military camps twice a year, and no contamination has been reported so far in the past five years,” the official said.
Meanwhile, 50 civic groups including the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Green Korea United launched a special team to look into the recent allegations.
The team will open a call center to hear testimony from those who took part in spraying defoliants in the past. Member groups also plan to stage a protest, demanding the government and the U.S. military take necessary steps to provide compensation.
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