[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL: "Truth of Contamination at U.S. Military’s Yongsan Garrison [South Korea] Begins to Emerge "

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Truth of Contamination at U.S. Military’s Yongsan Garrison Begins to Emerge

by Ben Jackson
Korea Exposé
April 18, 2017  
 
South Korean environmental campaigners won a significant victory against the country’s environment ministry on Tuesday. Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society), a civil rights NGO, had sued the environment minister in a bid to force the disclosure of information about environmental pollution on U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, a huge military base in central Seoul.

Environmentalists and Seoul Metropolitan Government have long been aware of high levels of benzene and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) detected in areas adjacent to the Yongsan base, such Noksapyeong Station. But the base itself, assumed to be the source of the contamination, remains inaccessible to the city authorities.

Environmental groups welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Minbyun’s lawsuit against the ministry. “This is a significant ruling both for the environment and for the people’s right to know,” said Sin Su-yeong of Green Korea United, who worked with Minbyun to obtain information in the ministry’s possession. This was the third ruling in favor of the campaigners, and the second unsuccessful appeal on the part of the government.

…

For the entire article, see
https://koreaexpose.com/south-korea-yongsan-garrison-contamination/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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