Workshop Report from SGR Conference 'New Science - New Danger' (1996)

Toxic Legacy - Military Bases

The workshop heard a detailed account by Philip Webber of the Upper Heyford base work and how it was organised. He also gave an update on activities around the UK and elsewhere, on military bases and contamination from industrial sites. The issue of contamination from US bases is the subject of campaigns worldwide, and special interest groups in the UK such as CAAB (Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases). SGR now has a large dossier of information about various work going on.

Wendy McLeod Gilford gave a fascinating account of a campaign that she has waged, using the planning appeal system, against activities in the Harwell, Greenham Common area. It has another huge repository of information, occupying several filing cabinets!

What we agreed to do is probably most important. We agreed to collaborate on the Harwell and Lakenheath sites and to share information. The common threads are vested interests of various kinds. In the case of contaminated ex-military land, there is a strong motivation to develop sites for housing, because of enormous pressures for new housing and the high land values of such sites if they can be used this way. In the Harwell case, it seemed that several key people had migrated, from posts in the contaminating site, to those in the regulatory body overseeing decontamination and in the health authority.

The workshop agreed that it would be a good idea for any local SGR members, who lived relatively near ex-military sites and who had an interest in doing something about it, to contact Phil Webber about what might be usefully be done. A local member is a vital asset to see planning applications or local files in local authority or Environment Agency hands. If we know you are there, we can work with you to do something useful!  We can also provide a file of useful information to get you started.

As a follow up to the workshop, there has been further media interest. At present, a TV programme is wanting to do an interview for screening in Spring 1997. We also now have material for further SGR press releases.

Ultimately, we could try to combine members' known interest with known ex-US bases, but, bearing in mind our limited resources, it is probably most practical to move forward in areas where we are aware of a problem, where we know further work needs to be done, and where we have local members.

So, if you have been wondering about that site down the road, perhaps this will get you to pick up the phone and find out some more. There is now a new set of contaminated land legislation; this will continue to be a big issue which will not go away.

And, as if to prove it, we were presented with papers expressing concern about harmful environmental effects in the London Docklands area, linked to the print industry. It all comes down to a big demand for environmental appraisal, and a great mistrust by the general public of local Councils or other bodies that are supposed to be providing it. We need to know who in SGR has such skills, and perhaps to recruit some more members with this expertise.