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Representives from the ruling Uri Party ask an officer in charge to open the gates of Camp Colbern in Gyeonggi Province on September 8.
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Barred from entry, Uri Party lawmakers plan to file complaint
An attempt by four members of the ruling party to perform an environmental survey of a United States military facility scheduled to be handed over to Korean authorities was stifled yesterday when the Ministry of National Defense refused to cooperate. It was the first time members of the National Assembly have attempted to survey a United States Forces Korea site. Uri Party’s Moon Hak-jin, Woo Won-sik, Yu Seung-hi, and Lee Won-yong showed up Friday morning at the entrance to Camp Colbern, located in Hanam City, Gyeonggi province. They were accompanied by a policy oversight officer from the Ministry of the Environment. The group was hoping to survey pollution in the facility’s soil, using a bulldozer. Officials from the Ministry of National Defense, however, did not allow them access. The stated reason was that the land is still formally under American control, and the ministry is just doing guard duty.The Assembly members protested, saying they had been assured that the U.S. military had already returned the site to the Korean government and that they would be guaranteed access. Eventually they gave up trying to enter the base, instead climbing a nearby hill to overlook the former base, which proved to be strewn with garbage. They were shown the area by a 54 year-old Gang Ho-nam, who said he worked as a security guard at Camp Colbern for a total of 13 years up until July this year. From the distance, they could see used tires, shipping boxes for alcoholic beverages, and septic tanks. "U.S. military employees dumped garbage, construction materials, oil tank supports, and other junk in a hole and covered it all up with dirt," said Gang. "They moved it off to other locations when there were formal complaints, but even now there has got to be tons of it left." The U.S. "handed over the keys" to Camp Colbern and fourteen other installations in July, saying it had already dealt with eight categories of pollution, including the removal of underground oil storage tanks. A study by the Ministry of the Environment recently found that total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) levels on those facilities are 28 times the safe amount dictated by Korean environmental standards. Assemblyman Woo said the pollution is serious, yet the U.S. "cleaned up only about as much as you would when moving out of a house. The Korean government didn’t even check to see whether things were cleaned up before hastily taking the keys back," he said. The legislators pledged to censure the defense ministry, as allowed by the National Assembly Law, for denying them access to the base.
