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Consensus Sought on Volunteer Site Cleanup
Chattanooga Times - Chattanooga Free Press -- 9/5/00The Chattanooga Times - Chattanooga Free Press reported that Army and environmental regulators are in discussions this week to discuss pollution clean up at Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant. The article stated The Federal Environmental Protection Agency and The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, in addition to several other agencies, are meeting with the army in order to confer about cleanup efforts. To date, the clean-up effort has been delayed because the two sides cannot come to an agreement on how to carry out the effort and what the costs will be. The article reported that the soil and water both outside and inside the plant near Tyner are polluted with metals, explosives, and chemicals. These pollutants originated from the American military forces past production of TNT. The article stated that the Army would like to begin clean up as soon as possible for two main reasons: 1) The county plans to hand over 940 acres of the 6,300-acre site for industrial redevelopment to Chattanooga and Hamilton County. 2) The EPA wants to speed up the clean-up process because Volunteer is one of 1,712 sites where it is required that the soil and groundwater pollution be alleviated by 2005. The article reported that the last time the wells were checked for contaminants was 1994. The army has been asked to check the local wells again and has responded that they will do so when they have the money. The article states that many of the local residents are aware of the testing but are not worried as there were no explosives found in the water during the first set of tests.
