Army offers list of cleanup sites at Fort Monroe

HAMPTON, Va. | The Army has listed 33 sites at Fort Monroe that would require cleanup for possible hazardous materials before it leaves the military base in 2011.

The sites include a former machine shop, an old landfill, artillery ranges and offices in which photos were developed. Of the sites, 17 might have fairly common contaminants, including lead paint, pesticide or gasoline-soaked soil. The 16 munitions sites might have live bullets and explosives.

The list does not include a plan for recovering bullets and artillery shells that were shot over the water and likely landed in the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads or even parts of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, according to Army documents.

In addition, the Army’s list of contaminated sites at the fort does not include the estimated cleanup costs. The cost likely will depend upon how much contamination is found.

Negotiations between the Army and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality over the extent of offshore cleanup are still under way, as the historic post nears being transferred to the state for a non-military purpose.

The Army has agreed to search for metallic anomalies that could be bombs or ordnance as far as 100 yards offshore of recreational areas at Fort Monroe, said Rick Weeks, the state environmental department’s chief deputy.

State and Army officials are still negotiating on whether the Army will search for ordnance as far as 100 yards offshore of the sea wall and the two bridges that are entryways and exits to the base.

In February, Addison D. Davis IV, deputy assistant secretary of the Army, sent a letter to Mr. Weeks offering details about the Defense Department’s survey of unexploded ordnance.

Mr. Davis said the Army has been assembling records of locations, types and quantities of munitions that were “disposed of” in coastal waters.