I have long chronicled the USFK camp pollution issue here on the ROK Drop and now finally it appears that a solution is at hand:

A thorny issue over who will pay for the environmental cleanup of U.S. military bases being vacated is finding an amicable solution, Korea’s top environment policymaker said.

“A survey initially underestimated the costs of cleaning up Camp Hialeah in Busan by 25 percent but U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) will take care of it before returning it,” said Environment Minister Lee Maan-ee during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times last week.

Regarding Camp Madison in Uiwang, south of Seoul, where an oil spill has been the target of public grievance, Lee said, “The USFK will conduct a survey and clean it up before returning it to us.”

Lee said he was the first environment minister to meet with the USFK commander, now Gen. Walter Sharp, adding that their agreement came during their meeting.

The 63-year-old minister also said the two countries are seriously considering a formula for settling future disputes over base cleanups in which the U.S. military would pay if new sources of contamination were found, even after the bases have been returned.

There is no clear clause regarding cleanup costs in the ROK-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), and this has been a constant source of friction in the relocation of U.S. bases.  [Korea Times]

Considering that US forces have been working on these bases for decades there is of course going to be pollution from vehicle leaks for example.  The SOFA states when camps are handed over the Korean government takes them over “as is”.  However, USFK has gone well beyond the “as is” standard and has actually poured a lot of money into cleaning up the camps.

This hasn’t stopped the usual anti-US groups and individuals from making wildly absurd claims about the pollution levels on these camps.  These people could care less about pollution in Korea in general because their only concern is manufacturing anti-US sentiment. As many of you I’m sure remember, the environmental groups along with a large block of the DLP political party have been linked to a North Korean spy ring.

These lawmakers and environmentalists have little creditability and I suspect much of the camp pollution findings have been “Dr. Hwang-ed” for political purposes. I have long advocated for this but, I would love to see a detailed line by line report on the supposed environmental damage in every camp. What I suspect is going on is that these demagogues are making claims of pollution due to the presence of asphalt on the camps for example. Oil is used in making asphalt thus they can make claims of oil slicks on the camps based on the presence of asphalt.

For those who have never served in Korea, the USFK camps are literally an oasis of green in the middle of dense urban cities. The camps after the Korean war were located on the outskirts of Korean cities but the camps have now been swallowed up by the growing cities which are a sign of Korea’s amazing development since the war. It is partly because of this development that USFK wants to relocate the camps to the sparsely populated Camp Humphreys area. If anything the USFK camps are the cleanest piece of land in the surrounding communities and some have been designated to become parks when handed over; yet the anti-US groups have successfully used this issue for years now to create friction between USFK and the Korean populace.