Army officials have long argued that the cleanup of four parcels at the sprawling Anne Arundel County post should be enough for the regulatory agency to take the base off its Superfund list of the nation's most polluted sites.
The problems at Fort Detrick are complex. For decades after World War II, the military dumped tons of solvents, pesticides and other wastes in open pits there.
Officials became aware of contamination at Fort Detrick in 1992, when state and Frederick County health officials found chemicals in private wells outside the post. They tracked the source of the contamination to a fallow area of the post that used to house a chemical dump.
The discovery of potentially cancer-causing chemicals in the wells of nearby homes and businesses led to a $40 million Army cleanup. The Army subsequently paid to hook up the affected homes to the city of Frederick's water supply or provide them with bottled water.
The Maryland Department of the Environment recently asked the EPA to put Fort Detrick on the Superfund list, said Horacio Tablada, director of waste management administration for MDE.
The agency responded last week that it had added the post to a preliminary list, which would become final after public hearings this fall, he said.
Tablada said the designation would set priorities for spending on the cleanup of Fort Detrick.
josh.mitchell@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Liz F. Kay contributed to this article.
