CAMP CARROLL, South Korea - Republic of Korea and United States government officials were at Camp Carroll June 2 to witness the start of the joint investigative team’s testing and assessment at the alleged burial site of Agent Orange here.
The testing and assessment began with ground penetrating radar or GPR designed to detect geophysical anomalies caused by buried materials or soil disturbances. The GPR is commonly used for environmental, engineering, archaeological and other subsurface investigation.
“We are using the GPR within its capabilities to help us refine other testing efforts,” said Eighth Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson. “We will still do water sample testing and soil sample testing to whatever level the joint investigation team believes is necessary to determine whether there is any health risk.”
Korean experts from the Ministry of Environment suggested that additional equipment could be helpful in the ground testing. Johnson replied that if the ROK-U.S. joint investigation team determines other testing should be done, they have complete access to this site to do that testing.
Groundwater sample testing was also conducted by U.S. and Korean experts to identify possible contaminants in the drinking water here.
The Korean and American experts split the water sample from the same source and will conduct separate tests on the samples. They will then analyze the results together to verify the accuracy of each independent test.
Results of this testing and future testing will be made public as they become available.
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