Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
July 1, 2003

Official disputes Corps appraisal

By DIANA CAMPBELL
Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - A state land official says he believes chemical weapons testing equipment will be found at a former military dump site near Fort Greely.

His assessment contradicts the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' characterization of the site as being mostly household waste.

"All the debris on the site indicates testing equipment," said Robert Layne, a Department of Natural Resources land manager for contaminated sites.

In mid-July, the Corps plans to excavate the chemical and biological warfare era dump site, located about 3 miles south of the Gerstle River near the Alaska Highway, spending $500,000 on the project.

Layne has several reasons for disagreeing with the Corps' characterization of the site. First, he says he has personally seen testing debris at the dump, including parts of a nerve gas detection device and strapping materials associated with chemical warfare.

Layne also has an official military map from 1959 that designates the site as a dump. He said such a dump would logically contain little household garbage given the activity of the time. This was also a time when no one sorted garbage for particular disposal, instead dumping everything together in one place, he said.

At the time, troops, some wearing protective gear, were exposed to two types of nerve gas. A bacteria, called bacillus globigii, was released along the Alaska Highway about 20 miles from Delta Junction and eight miles from Healy Lake. The bacteria was thought to be harmless but was later discovered to cause infections in some people with a reduced immune system.

Shah Alam, a Corps project manager, said military records indicate there is likely no chemical and biological warfare testing equipment at the dump. But just in case they find something suspicious, Alam said, the Corps has a alternate plan to deal with dump refuse.

The Corps is also relying on the testimony of a former Fort Greely commander who said there was no chemical and biological testing equipment on the site, Layne said.

"These people change out all the time," he said. "All you get is a segment of the time and a segment of knowledge," he said.

There is little record of what kind of testing happened in the 1950s other than the map and the dump, Layne said.

"This is the oldest dump in association with the '50s testing," he said.

The Corps has found two contaminants at the dump. One is trichloroethene, a persistent toxic solvent that could be carcinogenic and difficult to clean up.

"We've already found TCE, which is not consistent with household waste," Layne said.

The other is diesel fuel, which is also toxic, but easier to deal with.

Corps project manager Shah Alam said last week that finding TCE has driven the cleanup of the site.

"I'm sure there is a source of that solvent," Alam said.

He could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Diana Campbell is a 2003 Alicia Patterson Fellow researching the high rate of cancer among Alaska Natives. She can be reached at 459-7500, Ext. 7168 or dcampbell@newsminer.com .