VietNamNet Bridge – The latest research work has found that the dioxin contamination at the Bien Hoa Airport in Dong Nai province is more serious than that in previous announcements and that it is necessary to draw the dioxin panorama in the area again.

The local residents in the Bien Hoa airport area have lodged a complaint about a trade and trade promotion complex project being carried out in the dioxin contaminated area.

The report lately saying that appropriate agencies have found more dioxin contaminated places at the Bien Hoa airport has made people feel more insecure.

The National Steering Committee for remedial toxic chemicals used by the U.S in Vietnam War (Committee 33), at a recent workshop held in the cooperation with UNDP, announced that the dioxin contamination has been discovered in all the 28 newly excavated places at the Bien Hoa airport.

Prior to that, the dioxin contamination had been found in 13 places.

The serious contamination level has been found in 16 out of the 28 places (8,000 ppt higher than the allowed level). The analysis of the 110 soil and sediment samples taken at the average depth of 30 cm has also found the dioxin contamination higher than the allowed level in many samples.

Also according to Committee 33, the dioxin contamination at the alarming rate has been found at the corners of the West, East and North belts of the airport.

As such, after a lot of research works conducted recently, experts have once again affirmed that the dioxin contamination level at the Bien Hoa airport is more serious than at the Da Nang and Phu Cat Airport in the central region.

They have discovered in the archives that the US army brought to the Bien Hoa airport and stored there 98,000 barrels (205 liters for each barrel) of orange agent, and the other tens of thousands of other chemicals.

After the war, only two areas of the Bien Hoa airport – Z1 and southern Z1 – have been temporarily treated. Meanwhile, the other tens of hectares of land remain polluted, including the 5-7 hectare of the water surface area described as seriously polluted.

The lakes and ponds, for the last many years, have been the sources accumulating and distribute dioxin to the other areas of the airport.

Emphasizing that the dioxin problem at the Bien Hoa airport is even more serious than previously announced, Le Ke Son, Chief Secretariat of the Committee 33 said it is necessary to re-draw the picture of the dioxin contamination in the area.

Since 2006, the Ministry of National Defense has been running a lot of programs on settling the dioxin contamination nationwide. As for the Bien Hoa airport, the treatment has been made in an area of 5 hectares, where there were the broken toxin containing tanks.

About 10,000 cubic meters of intoxicated land at the dept of over 1 meter has been buried and isolated.

However, experts have pointed out that the method only can partially settle the pollution.

NLD