South Korea's government has launched extensive investigations into underground water sources near a U.S. military camp where large amounts of the leftover toxic chemical Agent Orange were allegedly buried in the 1970s, officials said Sunday.
The Government Public Institute of Health and Environment of North Gyeongsang Province said that it has taken samples of five underground sources of drinkable water in three regions around U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Camp Carroll in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
A U.S. terrestrial TV station reported last week, citing three veterans, that USFK massively buried the highly toxic substance at Camp Carroll some 30 years ago.
One of the three veterans claimed that the U.S. military had buried at least 250 drums of the toxic chemical near a heliport inside Camp Carroll in 1978. He said about 250 200-liter drums were buried over the first two weeks and then until the fall there were a few occasions when 30 to 40 drums were buried at a time.
Officials from the South Korean institute said that they will check whether the poisonous chemical leaked out of the buried drums and polluted the nearby regions' soil and water.
A community center in Chilgok uses an underground water spring for drinking water, which is adjacent to the heliport, they added.
South Korea's Environment Ministry last week launched a probe into the alleged illegal dumping of the chemical and demanded the U.S. military verify the report.
Agent Orange, a powerful toxic herbicide that was widely used in the Vietnam War, is suspected of causing serious health problems, including cancer and genetic damage to some people who are exposed to it and birth defects in their offspring.
The U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea said it was investigating the case. Some 28,500 American service members are currently stationed in the country, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.