S. Korea starts on-site probe of ex-U.S. base over alleged chemical dumping

(ATTN: ADDS some tests were delayed due to rain, quote, photo in paras 2-5, CHANGES dateline) BUCHEON/CHILGOK, South Korea, May 31 (Yonhap) -- A team of South Korean civilian experts and military staff started Tuesday its on-site investigation into the alleged burial of chemicals at a former U.S. military base in the 1960s, Defense Ministry officials said. The 14-member team collected groundwater and soil samples at the ex-U.S. base, once called Camp Mercer, in Bucheon, west of Seoul, where a former American soldier alleged that the U.S. military buried hundreds of gallons of chemicals between 1963 and 1964. The team will also use ground-penetrating radar devices and ultraviolet optical screening tools to scan the base, but the use of such devices was delayed due to rain. "The survey using ground-penetrating radar is inappropriate today because the ground is wet from morning rain," an official from the team told reporters. Camp Mercer was turned over to South Korea in 1993 and is now used by Korean troops, said Defense Ministry officials. If tests of the samples reveal that contamination levels exceed safety limits, the team will dig up the areas, said Kim In-ho, director-general of the ministry's Military Installations Planning Bureau and the lead investigator of the team. "The tests will be completed by mid-June," Kim told reporters earlier in the day. Separately, South Korea and the U.S. are jointly investigating claims by retired American soldiers that in 1978 they helped dump large amounts of the toxic chemical Agent Orange inside Camp Carroll in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Officials from the two nations collected soil samples from 14 locations near Camp Carroll on Tuesday with the help of drill rigs. Last week, the joint investigation team took groundwater samples near the base. A South Korean investigator from the joint team said it would take more than two weeks to analyze the samples. The joint team also plans to start monitoring sites inside Camp Carroll this week, officials said. Agent Orange is a highly toxic chemical widely used during the Vietnam War and can cause serious health problems such as cancer and birth defects. The claims of Agent Orange burial sparked a series of allegations that the U.S. military had buried chemical materials at its former military bases, prompting the ministry to form a task force to probe the new allegations. The task force held its first meeting on Monday to discuss how it will proceed with investigating 85 former U.S. military installations that were turned over to the South before 2003. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.