[CPEO-MEF] Some residents worry about toxic chemicals

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Washington
THE SUN LINK
Some residents worry about toxic chemicals
Christopher Dunagan
June 4, 2003

A group of Kingston residents will ask the federal Environmental
Protection Agency to look closely for chemical contamination at the old
Nike missile site where the Kingston high school is proposed, according
to Terry Benish, who has coordinated the effort.

"We feel that its former use from 1953 to 1974 has greatly impacted both
the groundwater and the ground itself," Benish said.

About 65 acres of the proposed 177-acre school site were once part of
the former Nike missile site, which included two underground launch
silos and associated buildings and equipment.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleaned up the
site, including removing about 10 underground storage tanks that once
contained fuel oil and other chemicals. A final report by the Corps in
1996 indicated that no further action was required.

Benish contends that the final study failed to look for a number of
hazardous chemicals found at other Nike sites throughout the United
States.

He said the testing was "very narrow" and based only on typical
practices at the Nike site. What is needed, he added, is a wider study
to look for toxic rocket fuels that could have been spilled or dumped at
the site as well as chemicals in solvents used to clean the equipment.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2003-06-04/local/166735.shtml

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