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Pacific Stars and Stripes
Saturday, October 23, 1999

Japan urged to clean air near Atsugi

Upcoming pollution report will confirm earlier Navy
studies showing high dioxin levels, officials say.

By Matt Curtis
Stripes Zama Bureau Chief

TOKYO - U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley,
worried over an upcoming environmental report, has
urged Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono to clean up
the air over an incinerator near Atsugi Naval Air
Facility,
a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said Friday.

In the coming weeks, Command Naval Forces Japan and
Japanese health agencies are slated to release a joint
environmental report on air and soil samples collected at
Atsugi. However, steps already are being taken to reduce
the pollution from Ayase's Enviro-Tech incinerator near
the base.

Lt. Cmdr. James Graybeal, CNFJ spokesman, said the
study itself won't be complete for another year.

But preliminary data reflects what U.S. officials have
been saying all along: The Enviro-Tech incinerator poses
a grave health risk to Atsugi sailors and their families.

Since 1995, Navy studies have shown the incinerator
churns out as much as 33.4 picograms of dioxin per cubic
meter of air. Dioxin is a carcinogen formed when plastics
and other compounds are burned at low temperatures.

Japan health organizations view any level above 0.8
picograms - less than one-trillionth of a gram - as
unsafe.
But up until now, Japanese officials have been reluctant
to
accept U.S. findings because they haven't been involved
in the actual research.

The latest study, funded by a joint U.S.-Japan contract,
will validate the Navy's earlier numbers, Graybeal said.

"We have a long history of data that is very consistent,
and everything says the dioxin levels exceed the local
standard,'' he said. "We don't expect it to be any
different
this time around.''

A U.S. embassy spokesman Friday confirmed Foley
asked Kono to "expedite action'' at the Enviro-Tech
incinerator.

According to Graybeal, Japanese officials already have
promised a series of structural improvements to the
waste- disposal plant. Workers are scheduled to install
baghouse filters by February to help screen hazardous
particles from the incinerator's exhaust. By March 2001,
the facility also will boast 100-meter smokestacks.

The Foreign Affairs spokesman, who did not want to be
identified, said Kono had some concerns of his own.

Kono reminded Foley that Japanese citizens living outside
Atsugi's fenceline have spent 15 years complaining about
the noise generated by Carrier Air Wing Five's
night-landing practice.

In August, Tokyo's High Court awarded 170 million yen
- $1.65 million - to 156 plaintiffs who claimed they had
been suffering since the 1960s.

Navy officials say they have made a number of efforts to
reduce the noise created by their jet engines.

In 1989, Atsugi NAF shifted the bulk of its night-landing
practice to Iwo Jima, about 150 miles off Tokyo's coast,
until an alternate site could be established within 115
miles. Today, nearly 97 percent of the air wing's practice

is conducted at that island or facilities such as Misawa
Air
Base, Graybeal said.

Kono told Foley that U.S. pilots should continue to use
Iwo Jima as much as possible.

Atsugi spokeswoman Geralyn Noah said the base has
also tried to cut down on its noise levels by postponing
night landings during local community festivals and on
days when area students are taking their English listening

and comprehension exams.

"We try to make as many people as possible aware of
what's going on so they won't be caught by surprise,'' she

said. "We're doing our best at this end.''