Korean Left Attempting to Use Camp Pollution Issue to Stoke Anti-US Sentiment

Via a reader tip comes news that the Korean left is trying to re-stoke this old issue to bash USFK with:

The city estimated that polluted water near the Yongsan Garrison and Camp Kim came to 1,870 tons and 100 tons, respectively.

City officials noted that benzene, toluene and xylene among other chemicals were found in the underground water system.

Despite the capital pumping nearly 2,000 tons of contaminated water since 2001, pollutants were found to have remained in drainage water from the bases.

The discovery of pollutants is increasing concerns about waste disposal at U.S. bases, already heightened by concerns of possible Agent Orange contamination at camps in Korea.

Officials reiterated the urgency of preventing pollutants from entering the Hangang River. (Korea Herald)

You can read more at the link but the so called environmentalists are also bashing camps that are no longer even being turned over like Camp Casey and Camp Hovey. First of all there is going to be pollution on camps that are decades old and housed military equipment. This is not news. Secondly these studies in the past have been sensationalized by including lead contamination from rifle ranges and oil from new asphalt as pollution. They even claimed that people had to wear decontamination suits to go on Camp Kyle which I proved was false.

A lot of this issue comes down money.
When the base handover agreements were completed by the Roh Moo-Hyun government, they agreed to take the land including all buildings and infrastructure at no cost. Further cleanup efforts beyond what the United States already has done is supposed to be handled by the ROK. So on this issue the left gets to bash USFK again while the government can use this issue to get more money from the U.S. To pay for base clean up.