Environmental Contamination at U.S. Military Bases in South Korea And
Copyright © 2010 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120. .S . military forces have been stationed in South Environmental Korea for more than 50 years . Recently, after a decade-long consultation, the two nations agreed to Uintegrate the U .S . forces in a new, concentrated site to accom- Contamination at modate the newly developed military goals of the force . In 2007, the U .S . government returned 31 out of 66 military sites designated to be returned to South Korea . On 23 of U.S. Military the sites returned, both soil and groundwater were found to be contaminated with various pollutants, such as benzene, Bases in South arsenic, trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and heavy metals, such as lead, zinc, nickel, copper, and cad- mium . The U .S . government has contended that under the Korea and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA),1 it is not responsible for cleaning up the bases . The SOFA, initially signed in 1966, had not contained any Responsibility to environmental provisions until the 2001 amendment, under which environmental provisions were for the first time affixed Clean Up to the sub-agreements of the SOFA . In the Memorandum of Special Understandings on Environmental Protection (the 2001 Memorandum),2 the United States documented its policy to remedy contamination that presents “known imminent and substantial endangerment (KISE)” to human health . This policy statement was identical to the general policy established during the 1990s by the U .S . Department by Young Geun Chae of Defense . Whether the requirement of KISE has been met or not has been left open .
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