News Release
February 22, 2001

(Camp Edwards, MA) — The Impact Area Groundwater Study Program (IAGWSP), led by the National Guard Bureau, has been working on a continuing investigation and cleanup of the upper 15,000 acres at Camp Edwards on the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) since 1997. Working in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP), IAGWSP makes it a policy to inform the public of advances in the cleanup as well as discoveries of contaminants in the soil or groundwater.

Recent sampling and analysis of groundwater monitoring wells as part of the IAGWSP have detected Royal Dutch Explosive (RDX) above the health advisory of two parts per billion at depths of 55 feet below ground surface to 115 feet below ground surface in profile samples taken from Monitoring Well number 153 (MW-153), located on Greenway Road across from the L Range. This range is located between the J-3 and J-1 ranges in the southeastern portion of the Massachusetts Military Reservation and is illustrated on the attached map.

These detections are not in the immediate vicinity of any public water supply and do not present an immediate health risk.

This work is being conducted as part of the Impact Area Groundwater Study Program's investigation to assess the extent of explosives in groundwater beneath the southeast corner of the Impact Area on Camp Edwards. Additional monitoring wells are planned to confirm these detections.