Military

An oily substance was seeping from drums into the soil. It is believed to be waste
buried by the U.S. Army several decades ago when servicemembers used the area, the local
mayor said.

The drums were uncovered by a construction crew digging up a parking lot in the
town’s Mihama District.

The Army once used the area as a firing range. It was turned over to the Marines in
1975. The property was released to its original owner in 1981.

The area, near Camp Lester, has experienced an economic boom in the past five years,
with the construction of several large shopping centers, a hotel and many small
businesses.

Several 50-gallon barrels of the oily substance were discovered when the construction
crew noticed soil at the site, along Highway 58, was darker than normal. The crew
discovered about 20 leaking steel barrels buried about six feet. The property owner said
the area had been used as a parking lot for a golf shop since 1995.

Chatan Mayor Choichi Hentona said the barrels have English inscriptions on their lids.

He said he was concerned that the suspected oil waste may have spread to a nearby
Japanese junior high school.

"The discovery of such a contaminated substance really concerns us," Hentona
said. "When military land is returned in the future, we must demand thorough
environmental surveys."

If the U.S. military is the source of the buried drums, it would be the responsibility
of the Naha Bureau of Japan’s Defense Facilities Administration Agency to dispose of
them, a Self-Defense Agency spokesman said in Tokyo.

"If it was proven that these barrels were buried by the U.S. military, it would be
our responsibility to restore the land to its original condition," said Yasunari Ito,
deputy director general of the agency.

"We will wait for an answer from the DFAB before the contractor can remove the
barrels," Hentona said. "Before they can be moved, however, we must first trace
the cause of this contamination." He said the test results of the sludge will not be
available for three weeks.

[RECIPETAG]<HRBLACKRULE,0,0.3,-2,100>Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.