School appears uncontaminated from Meade dump

After extensive testing on a 60-year-old trash dump discovered next to an elementary school on Fort Meade, Army officials said yesterday the land does not appear to be contaminated by hazardous waste.

Environmental officials had concerns about the half-acre dump, which construction workers from Picerne Real Estate Group discovered in February, because petroleum covered some of the household trash that was dumped there.

Picerne, a Rhode Island company that is building about 3,000 homes at Fort Meade under a 50-year, $3 billion contract, was planning to put a few houses on the dump site. But Army officials said the company has shifted its plan and will not build on the dump site.

"Right now, there's no risk," said Fort Meade environmental engineer Jim Gebhardt. "But there's going to be no digging, no new houses."

Gebhardt presented the test results last night to Fort Meade's Restoration Advisory Board, which oversees cleanup on the post. Fort Meade is on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list of the nation's most hazardous sites.