Small traces of dioxins found near Camp Carroll

By Kim Tae-jong

A joint investigation team of Korea and U.S. Army announced Thursday that they had found only tiny traces of dioxins in water samples taken from streams near Camp Carroll in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province.

“Such levels are so minute that they would cause no health risk,” an official from the team said during a news briefing. “The amounts are much lower than the permitted level.”

The team collected groundwater samples from 10 locations and stream water samples from six within a radius of 2 kilometers of Camp Carroll last month to investigate allegations of the disposal of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange by American troops in 1978.

The findings do not directly indicate or prove that Agent Orange was buried at the U.S. base as claimed.

“Trace amounts of dioxins can be detected in the air or soil. So more testing is required to see if Agent Orange was buried there,” said Nam Sang-gi, an official from the Ministry of the Environment.

Officials said that it’s too early to relax as underground water and soil within the camp weren’t tested.

“Whether the finding of dioxins in some water samples taken from the areas near the camp has anything to do with contamination inside the camp will be known after further investigation,” the ministry official said.

The collected water samples were analyzed and the minimal amounts — ranging from 0.001 to 0.010 picograms per liter — of the dioxins, cancer-causing byproducts in the defoliant, were detected in stream water samples from three locations, according to the team.

The amounts are one three-thousandth to one thirty-thousandth of the standard level allowed in drinking water set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the team said.

But residents and members of environment groups skeptical of the investigation procedure claimed the results were not reliable,.

“Dioxins are much heavier than water and not water-soluble, and the substances can remain deep in the ground, but the investigation team only took samples from close to the surface,” said Lee Jae-hyuk, head of Green Korea United in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

He alleged the team used methods unlikely to detect the toxic substances, calling for a more thorough investigation.

Residents also said that the result would have been different if the team took water samples from deep underground inside the camp.

The investigation began last month after former American soldiers told a U.S. television station that they buried large amounts of Agent Orange under the heliport inside Camp Carroll.

Following the allegation, the Korean government and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) formed a joint investigation team of 16 Korean and 10 American specialists.

They have been conducting an on-site inspection inside the camp since late last month to check whether any toxic chemicals are buried there.

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 plan to make an announcement on the progress and result of the investigation next month when the analysis of the on-site inspection and samples of soil and groundwater inside the camp is completed.