OTIS AFB AND CRANBERRIES

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

(The following Reuters story came to me indirectly from Fox News. -
Lenny)

Pollution Sours Some Cape Cod Cranberry Crops
September 12, 1997

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Friday it was investigating damage caused
to
 cranberry bogs in Massachusetts by a jet fuel chemical additive
apparently leaking
 from a military reservation on Cape Cod. 

 "We take this issue very seriously,'' Deputy Undersecretary of Defense
Sherri
 Goodman said in a statement released by the Defense Department on the
problem
 near the Massachusetts Military Reservation. 

 The statement said that, if necessary, the department would seek
congressional
 authority to reimburse cranberry growers for any financial losses from
ruined fruit. 

 Jeff Lafleur, head of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association,
estimated the
 damage to the crop at nearly $750,000. "The crop from both bogs will
never go to
 market,'' he said. 

 Bright red cranberries, coveted by millions of Americans at
Thanksgiving. 

 Cranberries are the state's largest crop, generating $1 billion in
revenues annually
 from 14,400 acres of bogs, of which some 1,100 acres are on Cape Cod. 

 Goodman, who oversees environmental security for the military, said she
met
 Thursday with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and
promised
 to work with growers concerning tests conducted last week by the state
showing
 traces of EDB on berries taken from a bog on the Quashnet River. 

 The chemical was also previously found in waters adjacent to some
cranberry bogs
 on the Coonamessett River. The Air Force has taken action there,
including
 installation of several wells to provide fresh water for irrigating the
bogs. 

 Defense officials said EDB was an additive used in aviation fuel and
was used by
 Super Constellation aircraft stationed at what was then Otis AFB on the
Cape in the
 1950s and 1960s. Oil companies also used it as a substitute for lead to
keep engines
 running smoothly when leaded gasoline was phased out, they said. 

 "If growers have been commercially injured, the Air Force will work
with the local
 community to understand who has been injured and how,'' the Pentagon
statement
 said. 

 "If necessary the Department of Defense then will work with the
Massachusetts
 congressional delegation and Congress to seek legislative authority to
provide
 compensation as appropriate,'' it added. 

 State and congressional representatives met with the Defense Department
Thursday to
 see how the growers could receive compensation for their losses. 

 "We were told what the DOD needed now was an official accounting,'' a
 spokeswoman for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. said. ''We're trying to pursue
 non-legislation means first.'' 

 Meanwhile, the department said, an interim removal action was in
progress for EDB
 cleanup on the Coonamessett. The plan calls for installation and
operation of an
 extraction well where a maximum amount of contaminant can be removed.