Private Wells Surveyed in Fort Meade Area

Army Assessing Potential Risk to Residents Near Contaminated Monitoring Sites

The Army is about to start a door-to-door survey in Anne Arundel County in an attempt to find out how many private wells are near Fort Meade, where chemical contamination exceeding safe drinking water standards has been found in monitoring wells.

Also yesterday, a spokesman confirmed that the Army would sign a federal cleanup order by early summer. The order would outline the timing of the cleanup and the ways in which the Army would remediate groundwater and soil contamination.

The monitoring wells, used only for testing and not for drinking water, were installed by the Army in 2003 because of concerns about contamination at the base, which was designated a federal Superfund site in 1998. Since then, county health officials have been testing private wells nearby but have found none with contamination levels that exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards, said Elin Jones, a spokeswoman for the county Health Department.

But after test results in January showed increased levels of toxic chemicals at Fort Meade, the Army decided to redouble efforts to find private wells within a mile of the monitoring wells. The survey should begin within a week and be done by May 22, the Army said. Residents who use the county's public water supply are not at risk, officials said.

"These chemicals are a concern," said Fort Meade spokeswoman Mary Doyle. "We want to let people know that we're going to continue to test. And we want to make sure the water that they are using is safe."

In 2007, the EPA declared that chemicals at Fort Meade -- trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride -- might pose "imminent and substantial dangers to public health." The chemicals, which were used as industrial solvents to clean and degrease metals, can cause a variety of illnesses, according to federal health officials.

The EPA issued an order with deadlines to expedite the cleanup. But the Defense Department resisted the order, and the EPA declined to sue the Pentagon as it would a private company.

In December, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) sued the Army in federal court to have the order enforced. He said the Army "must agree to a legally binding commitment that clearly details a timeline for cleanup and immediate action to protect the public health."

Yesterday, Gansler's spokeswoman said the state was pleased at the Army's response. "We recognize that it's going to take them a little bit of time to get it signed and get the steps toward the cleanup going," Raquel Guillory said. "But this is clearly progress."

In a statement, the Army said that it "is putting a full-court press on working with the EPA" and that it "continues cleanup activity while working toward compliance" with the EPA order.