THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 22, 1994 TAG: 9412220559
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
It will cost about $22 million to remove explosive devices buried beneath Fort Monroe - considerably less than the $620 million estimate given two years ago when local officials were trying to avoid the base-closing axe.
Many of the explosives are Civil War-era cannonballs, and shells from World War I, when the preferred method of dumping faulty ammunition was to bury it or dump it in the moat surrounding the original stone fort - now, the Casemate museum.
The lower estimate may remove clean-up costs as an argument against closing the historic fort. But Col. William B. Clark, Fort Monroe's commanding officer, said that was never a concern of the Defense Base Closing and Realignment Commission.
``The number one thing the BRAC commission looks at is military value,'' Clark said Wednesday as he announced the results of a six-month $1.35 million survey of unexploded ordnance. ``These types of things . . . are not supposed to be items that impact upon their decision.''
Still, the survey arose from questions raised during the 1993 base-closing process by commission member Beverly Byron, Clark said.
An attorney representing the state said Virginia would require cleaning up Fort Monroe before the federal government leaves it. A historical site that predates the Revolutionary War, the fort would revert to the state of Virginia.
``Her comment,'' Clark said, ``was, `If you are concerned about that when it reverts back to you, why aren't you concerned about it today?' ''
Byron wanted to know the risks and costs of removing the ordnance.
``She had nothing to say about whether that impacted upon her decision,'' Clark said.
The commission decided in 1993 that it could find neither a reason to keep the fort open or to close it. The Army has never recommended closing the fort.
The 1995 base-closing process is scheduled to get under way next month with the naming of the commission that will decide by summer which military installations are to be closed.
The latest survey shows that cleanup may not be a deciding factor even if it were considered.
It would take about a year, officials said, to remove all the unexploded ordnance down to a depth of 10 feet. They found there is no risk to anyone using the installation in the meantime.
``The risk of direct exposure is small, in the one-to-one-million range,'' said Charles H. Heaton Jr., project engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.
The study, commissioned by the Army Corps of Engineers and conducted by Parsons-Engineering Science of Fairfax, involved a physical survey of about 283 acres of the installation. The remaining 285 acres were beneath roads, existing buildings, or in wetlands that were not inspected.
Electronic detectors discovered 73,331 ``anomalies'' - indications of buried ferrous-based metals. Of those, 21,851 have a high probability of being unexploded ordnance.
The estimates of how many actually are is much lower - only about 1,309.
Clark attributes the lower estimate to improved technology that provides more accurate measurements. The earlier estimate dates to 1979.
If the land is retained by the Defense Department, it is unlikely any of the ordnance will be disturbed, he said.
If some of the land is sold for development - which could include pile-driving, new water and sewer lines, and road construction - the likelihood of risk rises.
Fort Monroe became the Army's first artillery school in 1824. It grew to be the largest arsenal in the country during the Civil War. Even through the beginning of World War II, soldiers lobbed all sorts of bombs along two impact areas inside the fort, mainly testing newly developed armor piercing shells.
Today the facility houses the Army Training and Doctrine Command - the Army's ``think tank'' where doctrine, weapons systems, equipment, organization and training needs are developed. It recently gained additional importance as the headquarters for the Joint Warfare Fighting Center.
The work yielded a variety of objects, including a saddle stirrup, 8-inch monkey wrench, horse harness, plow shear, three cannon balls of 4-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch diameter, four mortar shells between 10 and 24 inches long, rifle casings and other weapons components. by CNB