Feingold wants federal probe into Badger Ammo contamination
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has asked federal
officials to conduct an investigation into possible exposure to
contaminated drinking water of workers and people living near the
Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.
Feingold has sent a letter from the Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger -- which raises issues related to water safety at the now inactive plant -- to Howard Frumkin, director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Records provided by the citizens' group
indicate that workers and those living near the plant could have
been exposed to contamination beginning in 1943 because the potable
water system at the plant, which manufactured ammunition for the
military, was directly connected to industrial process water
piping.
That would allow for the potential of cross-contamination of the drinking water supply used by munitions workers until 1993, when separate water systems were put into use.
Studies by the Olin Corp., which operated the plant, and the Army have found there were not sufficient protections to guard against backflow problems and backsiphonage. The drinking water system was found to have had hundreds of direct connections between the process water piping and production tanks.
The Army study also found that recovered water from manufacturing could have discharged into the drinking water systems and drinking water lines in areas where safeguards were not in place.
Because the water system at the plant was also connected to nearby housing projects, workers' families also might have been subjected to risk, the citizens' group said.
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger was organized in 1990 after disclosures that private drinking water wells near the plant were polluted with high levels of chemicals, including some which were cancer-causing.
The group's letter and other documents can be found on its Web site.
Mike DeVries/The Capital Times
A citizens' group says drinking water pipes connected to industrial process waste pipes could have exposed past Badger Army Ammunition plant workers and nearby residents to contaminated drinking water.
