USFK suspected of dumping military waste at Camp Carroll for three decades

CHILGOK, South Korea, June 1 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. military is suspected of having buried hazardous military waste at its base here for nearly three decades until 1987, officials and residents said Wednesday, amid growing anxiety over the alleged burial of Agent Orange by U.S. troops.
The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) established its logistics base of Camp Carroll in 1960, but started the disposal of waste outside the base from 1987, according to Chilgok County officials.
"Before the off-base disposal, the U.S. military was presumed to have incinerated or buried its waste there and former civilian workers at Camp Carroll gave such accounts," a county official said on the condition of anonymity.
Adding to the concerns over the potential burial of toxic chemical Agent Orange, residents are worried that the waste, including expired food items and excess oil, could contaminate water from the Nakdong River, located near the U.S. base.
Park Hyun-jong, a 52-year-old resident, said, "I heard that the entire base was a garbage disposal site. So, there is a need to check the state of environmental contamination inside Camp Carroll."
Officials at Camp Carroll declined to comment on how the base disposed of its waste until 1987.
The remarks came as South Korea and the U.S. are jointly investigating allegations by former soldiers stationed at Camp Carroll that USFK illegally buried Agent Orange there in 1978.
Last week, USFK confirmed that a large amount of chemicals were buried at the U.S. base in 1978, but they had been moved to outside the base during the following two years.
Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant widely used during the Vietnam War, was sprayed by USFK in the 1960s around the Demilitarized Zone to thwart North Korean infiltrations.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.