US agrees to immediately return 4 military bases to S. Korea
US agrees to immediately return 4 military bases to S. Korea
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/920639.html
The deliberations about who should be responsible for dealing with the contamination aren’t going smoothly. To date, there are no examples of the US taking responsibility for contamination and covering the cost of decontamination at military bases it has handed over in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. While the US acknowledges that the four bases are polluted, it reportedly denies that the contamination poses a “known, imminent, substantial endangerment to human health.”
Five active bases, heavily contaminated with PFAS remain a concern. See these concentrations of PFAS carcinogens in drinking water. Many US states are limiting the stuff to less than 20 ppt in drinking water and ground water. We don’t know how severely contaminated South Korea’s groundwater is, although it is likely to be as bad as Germany.
Camp Carroll, PFOA + PFOS 1,066 ppt.
Camp Walker PFOA + PFOS 789 ppt.
Camp Red Cloud Korea PFOA + PFOS 486
Camp Stanley PFOA + PFOS 1,061
Camp Kunsan PFOS+PFOA 85 ppt
Source – DoD – https://partner-mco-archive.s3.amazonaws.com/client_files/1524589484.pdf
Pat Elder