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| Activists post messages on a contaminated water collector from the Yongsan military base near Noksapyeong Station in Seoul, Thursday, urging the U.S. military to clean up any waste. The Seoul Metropolitan Government collects the water twice a week from the collector. / Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled Thursday that the Ministry of Environment (MOE) should disclose the results of pollution studies conducted last year on the U.S. military base in Yongsan, Seoul.
In May last year, a team of experts from the ministry tested soil and groundwater at the base, and in August NGOs, including Green Korea United and Lawyers for a Democratic Society, filed a complaint with the court after the ministry refused to release the findings.
The ruling came amid the Yongsan base's relocation to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, which is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2017.
The MOE is expected to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
The ministry's refusal to share the information with the public has in its favor the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), an accord between Korea and the U.S. that bans sharing information about ongoing matters with the public. The ministry also argued that the release of information could jeopardize Korea's diplomatic ties with the United States.
The civic groups objected to the government's argument.
Green Korea United argued that the people's right to know should prevail, especially when the extent of contamination is considerable. On Thursday, activists gathered near Noksapyeong Station, accusing the government of acting against the interests of citizens. It also urged the U.S. military to clean up the base.
According to SOFA, the U.S. military is responsible for any environmental pollution occurring within the military base. What happens outside the base is Korea's responsibility.
Many reports have shown that groundwater and soil near the Yongsan base are heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals, suspected of coming from the base.
According to Seoul Metropolitan Government which has been cleaning up the contaminated soil since 2001, the average concentration of benzene in groundwater near Noksapyeong Station was 9.707 mg/L in 2015. The figure is 647 times more than the environmental standard of 0.015 mg/L. Near Camp Kim close to Noksapyeong, the concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons was 8,633 times the government standard at 1.5 mg/L.
The U.S. military never officially recognized its role in the contamination, which some believe is because of the high cleanup costs. The city government has spent 5.6 billion won on cleanups near the base since 2001.
Negotiations to determine who will pay for the cleanup on the Yongsan base haven't yet begun. Last year's study was to establish the facts before the negotiations start.
"It would be more difficult to get them to clean up the contamination after they move out," Shin Soo-yeon from Green Korea United said. She pointed to instances of other installations that have been returned to Korea, which had to be cleaned up using taxpayers' money.
