Base Closings Leave Behind Large Swaths of Pollution

May 31, 2005 — By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press


GROTON, Conn. — For decades, the land around the Navy's oldest submarine base was a dumping ground for whatever it needed to dispose of: sulfuric acid, torpedo fuel, waste oil and incinerator ash.
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Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, where petroleum, solvents and pesticides have contaminated the soil and water, is part of a military compound that requires $538 million in cleanup, according to the report. The Concord, Calif., Naval Weapons Station and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, also are heavily polluted.

The Navy has already spent $57.6 million cleaning the Groton base. Crews have sealed landfills, cleaned acres of wetlands and hauled away tons of soil contaminated with arsenic, PCBs, and the pesticide DDT....

The base's waterfront, potentially its most valuable land, also is the most polluted. Elevated levels of cancer-causing chemicals were detected near a solvent-storage building and contractors warned that pregnant women and small children were at risk for lead exposure in the area, according to a 2001 environmental report. <more>

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