RE: [CPEO-MEF] PRESS RELEASE: WDNR Should Enforce Cleanup of Explosives

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Here's a text version of the CSWAB release:

CSWAB
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand's Bay South - Merrimac, WI  53561
Phone (608) 643-3124 - Fax (608) 643-0005
Email: info@cswab.org - Website: www.cswab.org

July 9, 2007

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

For more information contact:
Laura Olah, CSWAB (608)643-3124

WDNR Should Enforce Cleanup of Explosives

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) is urging the WDNR to 
respond to increasing levels of explosives in groundwater at the closing 
Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.  In a July 9 letter to WDNR 
Regional Director Lloyd Eagan, CSWAB asks for additional private wells 
testing, installation of more monitoring wells, and a plan to assure 
that groundwater and nearby drinking water wells are safe now and in the 
future.

Test results presented by the Army at a June 18 public meeting indicate 
increasing problems with groundwater quality in the northeast corner of 
Badger.  The main contaminant of concern is the explosive dinitrotoluene 
(DNT).

The Army reported that levels of four isomers (forms) of DNT (2,3-DNT, 
2,5-DNT, 3,4-DNT and 3,5-DNT) have climbed as high as 9 parts per 
billion which is 180 times the state standard for the 2 other isomers of 
DNT.   The groundwater enforcement standard for both 2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT 
is only 0.05 parts per billion.

Despite these findings, the WDNR remains unresponsive, arguing that an 
enforcement action is not possible because Wisconsin does not yet have a 
groundwater standard for all isomers of DNT. CSWAB is challenging the 
WDNR saying that state law clearly authorizes the Department to take 
action necessary to protect public health and groundwater resources even 
if enforceable standards have not yet been established.    Groundwater 
from the site is moving toward the Weigand's Bay area in Merrimac 
Township, more than 3,000 feet away.  The Army said that in March 2007, 
a monitoring well near the bay detected low levels of 2,6-DNT, 2,3-DNT, 
and 3,4-DNT.  During the same testing cycle, the Army sampled a 
residential well nearly a half mile to the south and also found low 
levels of 2,3-DNT.

The source of the DNT contamination is a hazardous waste disposal site 
inside the northeast corner of the plant.  The Army installed a landfill 
cap over the area in 2003.  As part of Badger's facility-wide permit, 
the WDNR requires the Army to regularly monitor four nearby residential 
wells.  So far, the Wisconsin Division of Health says these drinking 
water wells are safe to use.

CSWAB maintains the increasing groundwater contaminant levels at the 
plant boundary warrant testing more homes as soon as possible.  The call 
for expanded testing has been supported by members of the Badger 
Restoration Advisory Board, including the Town of Merrimac.

The 4 isomers of DNT detected at the northeast corner of Badger have 
also been found in private wells in the Windings, Water's Edge, and Dam 
Heights neighborhoods north of Prairie du Sac.  CSWAB is also 
petitioning for expanded testing there.

For more information, including a map of Badger showing DNT detections, 
go to the CSWAB website at www.cswab.org.

END

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