The US has "closed the file" on its former baselands in Bermuda and is highly unlikely to ever reopen discussions on the clean-up of the land, according to the author of a new book.

Don Grearson, whose 450-page 'USS Bermuda — The Rise and Fall of an American Base' goes on sale today (Friday), said he "wouldn't bet" on the Island getting anything beyond the $11 million settlement it collected in 2002. Premier Ewart Brown spoke to US Attorney General Eric Holder about the issue last month and reported that progress had been made, though acknowledged it was coming in "small steps".

The US Navy left its Air Station in St. George's and Naval Annexe in Southampton 14 years ago, leaving behind vast amounts of oil, as well as mercury, paint and batteries.

Mr. Grearson said yesterday that US Navy contractor JA Jones gave a $65 million estimate for cleaning up the mess at what are now Southside and Morgan's Point a decade ago.

He added: "If something happens with the Americans, I would be shocked. They have closed the file. It's done. More power to whoever achieves that. It won't be happening."

The 55-year-old, who joined Government's base closure team in 1994, wrote the book between 2001 and 2006.

He described 'USS Bermuda' as a "labour of love and pain" and joked that it may be "one of the most expensive books ever put together". "It took four-and-a-half years of lost income and lots of expenses," he said.

The communications consultant, who has worked for the United Bermuda Party since finishing the book, trekked the streets of New York to try to get a publishing deal. But the Paget father-of-one could not convince publishers that there was an American market for his "very intimate look at how Bermudians govern themselves".

Mr. Grearson — who is originally from Toronto and came to Bermuda in 1984, gaining Bermudian status in 2006 — has now self-published the work, printing 1,500 copies. It is on sale at local bookstores for $49.99. "It cost a lot," he said. "I'm looking to make money out of it."

He claimed it was "without parallel in written works about the Island" and that his position as a "privileged insider" after the closure of the bases gave him huge access to Government files and information.

He writes that Bermuda had little if anything to offer the US in negotiations about the land clean-up and that a financial settlement only arrived after the UK got involved in the talks.

The $11 million deal came, he suggests, after Britain offered to let the States extend their airstrip at their base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

"When we come to making a decision [on Independence], we better understand all the implications of it," said Mr. Grearson, former news editor at The Royal Gazette.

"Bermudians can do what they want to do. I'm a Bermudian. We just better be prepared that we are cutting ourselves loose from one possibility of leverage in the world."

His research for 'USS Bermuda' included interviews with US Department of State officials involved in negotiating that deal, as well as local players who handled the shutdown of the baselands, such as former Premier Sir John Swan and former Cabinet Minister Grant Gibbons.

Mr. Grearson said: "This book takes as close a look as possible — or that's ever been done — at how Bermudians govern themselves and how decisions are made and that's the real value of the book."