http://www.pstripes.com/edw.html
Wednesday, October 27, 1999

Pollution levels unsafe
at Atsugi, report
confirms

By Matt Curtis
Stripes Zama Bureau Chief

TOKYO - Japanese officials now have it on record -
the smoke coming from Ayase's Enviro-Tech incinerator
is unsafe for U.S. sailors and their families living at
nearby Atsugi Naval Air Facility.

U.S. and Japanese investigators are halfway through a
joint study of the area surrounding Enviro-Tech's waste
disposal plant.

Preliminary data released Monday showed the facility
churns out dangerously high levels of dioxin - a
compound formed by burning plastics and other
materials at low temperatures.

The study shows the incinerator generates as much as
58 picograms of dioxin per cubic meter of air.

Japanese agencies consider anything above 0.8
picogram (less than one-trillionth of a gram) as unsafe.

Those numbers aren't new to the U.S. Navy.

Since 1995, officials have released surveys with similar
findings, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. James Graybeal,
spokesman for Command Naval Forces Japan.

But up until now, Graybeal said, Japanese agencies
have been reluctant to accept U.S. figures because they
were never involved in the actual research.

"I think it's safe to say this latest study, using
Japanese
methodology, Japanese labs, the whole works, has
grabbed their attention," he said Tuesday. "This was so
consistent with all of our past studies. It validates what

we've said for the past five years. And now the
government of Japan can see it now, too."

Graybeal said it's safe to assume the incinerator is the
main contributor to the poor air quality seen around
Atsugi.

Air samples collected on base, but out of the path of the
plant's smoke plumes, had dioxin levels of 0.64
picogram, Graybeal said.

Enviro-Tech President Kikuo Ozawa declined to
comment.

The study, which ran from July-September, is slated to
resume next summer. A final report is due later next
year.

The data collected so far helps guarantee that, by this
winter, the Enviro-Tech incinerator will start to see a
series of structural improvements, Graybeal said.

By February, Japanese health agencies will install filters

to screen some of the hazardous particles from the
plant's exhaust.

By March 2001, a set of 100-meter-tall smokestacks
will be installed at the plant.