THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
The Boy Scouts were more than a little skittish about holding a weekend jamboree on the grounds of Tidewater Community College in Suffolk.
After all, the campus and surrounding property is under scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a possible toxic-waste cleanup site, and three tons of explosives were removed from a TCC soccer field in 1988.
But school officials met privately with Scout leaders and parents last year to quell anxieties, and the bash went off without a hitch.
This year, as some 200 Scouts from Portsmouth and Chesapeake prepare for a second gathering at TCC, from April 26 to 28, federal and state officials are urging more safeguards. And after some delay and arm-twisting, the college is responding.
Locked protective fencing is being erected around two small areas where evidence of old munitions has been found in recent years, including a beach on the James River where crumbling artillery shells and chemical canisters were removed by a demolition team in 1993.
In addition, TCC will start issuing notices to all outside groups, including Boy Scout troops, warning them of possible buried ammunition and other hazards that should be avoided, according to Tim Dinger, manager of health and safety at the Suffolk campus.
``We almost canceled . . . but we're pretty comfortable that we're in an area where there's no danger,'' said Rick Fessenbecker, assistant Scout executive for the Tidewater Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The precautionary moves come as the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue their search for health, safety and environmental dangers that may remain buried at the former Nansemond Ordnance Depot, a 975-acre military facility active during World Wars I and II.
The depot, which overlooks the James and Nansemond rivers, was sold as surplus to the state in 1960. It now includes TCC, a former General Electric plant and undeveloped areas covered by pine trees and real estate potential.
Since traces of TNT were discovered by a 13-year-old boy playing at a campus soccer field in 1987, college administrators have been sensitive to subsequent publicity about what else may lie in the ground.
In a January letter to Dinger, an EPA official complained that the federal agency ``is becoming increasingly concerned'' about a lack of information about the property and its potential dangers.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services voiced similar sentiments, especially in light of Boy Scouts planning another weekend jamboree.
Dinger responded that no one - not students, Kiwanis Club members, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts - has ever been injured on the property during outdoor events.
``Just falling in the river would be more likely than someone stumbling across a piece of live ordnance,'' Dinger said, adding that the EPA and the media are responsible for raising anxieties prematurely about the property. by CNB