’Gov’t hid toxic case at US base’

By Lee Tae-hoon

An opposition lawmaker alleged Thursday that the government has been covering up environmental problems at a former U.S. military base in Busan, which was returned to Korea in January 2010, following joint environmental pollution studies between 2006 and 2009.

“Pollution at Camp Hialeah in Busan far exceeded tolerable levels under the laws here, but the government has thus far refused to make public of the outcomes of environmental surveys,” Rep. Lee Mi-kyung of the main opposition Democratic Party said.

Citing a government source, the lawmaker claimed that a ground water sample was found to contain 721.8mg/l of petroleum residue, 481 times the legally allowable level.

She argued that a soil sample also showed residue exceeding the maximum allowable level of 500㎎/㎏ by 50.3 times, at 25,142㎎/㎏. A high level of petroleum residue suggests contamination from leaking underground storage tanks, oil refineries, or other fuel sources.

The four-term lawmaker also revealed that levels of other harmful pollutants _ phenol, tetrachloroethylene and benzene _ were also several times higher than is considered safe under local regulations.

The Ministry of Environment has been upholding the findings of environmental impact assessments on pollution at Camp Hialeah despite a series of court rulings against it. The ministry has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court despite years of public demands for disclosure.

The lawmaker said the hasty transfer of the U.S. base without disclosure of the exact data of the pollution examination and fair burden sharing for cleanup costs with the U.S. has set a wrong precedent for future base handovers.

Civic groups have also been critical of the Busan city government’s reluctance to conduct its own survey to assess the environmental damage the land sustained before beginning to develop the area into a public park.

Busan held a ground breaking ceremony in August for a 530,000-square-meter park that will be built on the site by 2015.

The U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) says that it followed all relevant agreements with Korea before handing the base over to the city government.

Critics say the government has been reluctant to press the USFK to shoulder the cost of cleaning up polluted areas found after the base was handed over because it wants to hasten the park project.

Camp Hialeah was the site of a Japanese military camp during its colonial rule of Korea (1910-1945). The U.S. Army moved in immediately after and vacated the site in 2006.