Following an 18-month scuffle under the Freedom of Information Act,
the Pentagon has released records detailing serious contamination on
Okinawa base land slated soon for return to civilian use.
The FOIA release is believed to be the first time such comprehensive
records regarding U.S. military contamination in Japan have been made
public.
The 82-page package, which includes reports and memoranda from the
U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps, reveals mass deaths of sea life,
burials of toxic chemicals and the possible exposure of base workers at
U.S. Marine Corps Camp Kinser in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture. The
documents also highlight the frustrations of the U.S. military as it
struggles to tackle contamination in the face of previous inept cleanups
and bureaucratic obstacles.
The documents, dating from the 1970s to 1990s, focus on a 46,000
sq.-meter outdoor chemical storage area located on the southern
shoreline of Camp Kinser, formerly known as the Machinato — or
Makiminato — Service Area. According to the reports, among the
substances stored were “retrograde shipments from Vietnam,” including
insecticides, herbicides and solvents.
In 1975, a large “fish kill” on the nearby coast prompted the U.S.
Army Pacific Environmental Health Engineering Agency to conduct surveys
of the sea and soil. The results “indicated high concentration of
chlordane, DDT, malathion, dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyl.”
The pesticides, chlordane and DDT, have both been banned due to
health risks; dioxins and PCBs have long been recognized as harmful, and
can remain dangerous for decades when buried.
Subsequent tests on Camp Kinser in 1977 also revealed high levels of carcinogenic heavy metals, including lead and cadmium.
According to the FOIA-released records, in an attempt to mitigate the
contamination, large quantities of the stockpiled chemicals were buried
or “flushed” on the base — including sludge from neutralized cyanide
compounds, inorganic acids and alkalis and 12.5 tons of ferric chloride.
Pesticides were also buried at Camp Hansen in the town of Kin.
However, the reports suggest these cleanup efforts were unsuccessful.
In the mid-1980s, during a civilian landfill project, toxins again
seeped from the base, resulting in the further death of marine life.
Documents written by military personnel in the 1980s and 1990s reveal
their dissatisfaction with predecessors’ remediation attempts. Labeling
the surveys “superficial” and “cursory,” they criticize the lack of
follow-up checks and the failure to record whether the contaminated soil
was ever removed from the installation.
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