[CPEO-MEF] Army Corps of Engineers expands war munitions search in two locations

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North Carolina
DURHAM HERALD SUN
Army Corps of Engineers expands war munitions search in two locations
by Hunter Lewis
hlewis@heraldsun.com; 419-6651
Jun 28, 2003 : 8:47 pm ET

BUTNER -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expanded its search for World
War II-era munitions last week in a subdivision where at least eight
live shells have been found, and on a Rougemont couple's property about
eight miles away, where two additional live shells were found.

Corps official Roland Belew said the team surveyed two acres of Norma
Reilly's property in Butner's Lakeview Estates and about three acres of
Wyatt and Amy Blaylock's 10-acre property in Rougemont.

The Corps won't know for sure whether more shells or other metal
objects, such as old plows or horseshoes, are embedded in the soil,
however, unless it decides to dig for them, he said.

Engineers used sophisticated metal-detecting equipment to probe six
inches below the surface and pinpointed any buried metal with
global-positioning devices. The Corps performed similar surveys in the
26-acre Lakeview Estates in January and March.

Belew said the Corps will use the surveys to develop a plan of action,
called a draft engineering evaluation and cost analysis, by late
September that will explain the extent of the ground contamination
around Butner and what the Corps intends to do about it. The plan could
involve a multimillion-dollar cleanup and a program to educate the
public about the dangers of old shells.

In the 1940s, soldiers fired thousands of shells on 15 munitions ranges
in the area near where Granville, Durham and Person counties meet. The
40,000-acre base, Camp Butner, housed and trained some 40,000 U.S. Army
troops for combat in World War II.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.herald-sun.com/granville/11-366693.html

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