at the St. David's Base, says a US Navy official.

And Government has hired a Washington-based environmental lawyer to prepare its case for pollution clean-up at the Naval Air Station and Naval Annex, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The US Navy is pulling out of Bermuda on September 1, and the environment is seen as the key battleground as the Base closures are negotiated.

RT Environmental Services Inc. of Pennsylvania has been drilling and performing other tests at NAS Bermuda and the Annex, working under a $480,000 contract with Government.

RT is to present its report to Government next month, and Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons has refused to comment on the company's preliminary findings.

But Cdr. Mike Donnelly, the public works officer on the Base, said RT had shared some of its St. David's findings with the Navy.

"Their preliminary results have shown some soil contamination and some potential groundwater contamination,'' Cdr. Donnelly said.

Mr. Curtis Kimbel, environmental director at the Base, said the contamination was apparently from "petroleum products'' that had leaked from underground storage tanks. He and the Navy would await RT's final report to evaluate the results, he said. The Navy's policy is to remove known risks to health and safety.

"Once Bermuda establishes their policy and their concerns, we would address them one by one,'' Cdr. Donnelly said.

Government is "going to ask us to do that much,'' he said, holding his arms wide apart. "We're going to look at whether there's funding, and whether there's time, and then make a conscious decision as to how much we'll do.

Right now, we don't know.'' He said the Navy is proud of its clean-up to date, which began years before the Base closure was announced. But it has all been done with existing funds, he said.

"We have gone and petitioned for some additional funding. Up to now, everything has been done out of our normal operating budget,'' Cdr. Donnelly said. We expect before all is said and done, we'll require some additional funds. Right now, I would say it wouldn't be over $1 million.'' However, "it's a moving target.'' The Navy has identified about 130 underground tanks at the Base. Over the years, they were used to store aviation and diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel, Mr. Kimbel said.

"All of this would be a concern if it got into the drinking water,'' but drinking water at the Base did not come from groundwater, he said.

The Navy has identified 45 of the tanks as "high priority''. They will either be removed or drained, cleaned, filled with inert material, and "abandoned in place.'' The other tanks will be cleaned, he said.

The Navy has not tested soil around the tanks for leakage, but Bermuda is doing such testing, Mr. Kimbel said. "If we do find contaminated soil around these tanks, once we remove them, we intend to clean it. Exactly how much work that is right now, we don't know.'' A Navy study estimated it would cost $4.5 million to hire contractors and close the landfill near Ruth's Bay, Cdr. Donnelly said. But the Navy modified the plan in consultation with the Bermuda Government and is closing it in-house for much less.

The landfill has been cut back to one burn pit from four. In order to close it, the Navy first must stop dumping its own waste there, Cdr. Donnelly said.

It is close to an agreement with Government that will see the Navy pay to have its trash picked up by a contractor and trucked to either the Tynes Bay Incinerator or the Pembroke Dump.

The landfill area will be graded, capped, and landscaped, with "hundreds of thousands of dollars'' spent on fill, Mr. Kimbel said.

No methane wells have been drilled at the landfill. Cdr. Donnelly said methane is much less of a problem in a burn pit landfill like the Navy's, and it is not yet known whether any wells will be needed.

"Bermuda's done a lot of environmental testing that will add to our knowledge when we see the results,'' he said.

An eight to ten-man crew worked nearly four months to rehabilitate about 1,500 feet of shoreline near the landfill, using torches to cut rusted and twisting metal from the ocean's edge. While about 1,000 tons of steel were trucked away, much remains.

Base soil Old vehicles and other metals were dumped in the area, and a couple of old steam rollers still lie in the water near the shoreline.

The Navy hired D&J Construction to dump large boulders along about 150 feet of the shoreline, covering the worst of the metal-scarred area that remains.

On the subject of hazardous waste, the Navy stresses that St. David's never had the heavy industry found at many military bases. For the last few years, motor oils, paint cleaners, batteries, and other hazardous wastes have been sealed in containers and shipped back to the US for disposal, he said.

However, "we don't know what the Air Force did when the Air Force was here (prior to 1970),'' he said. And "we don't know what the Navy did beyond a few years back.'' He conceded that until recently, the American military in Bermuda "probably did not'' seal hazardous waste and ship it back to the States.

Whatever the disposal practices were, "there is no apparent negative effect that we're aware of'', he said.

They noted both the West Indian top shell mollusc and the cahow were thriving around the Base. And last year the Navy developed a five-acre area on Cooper's Island into a nature park planted with palmettos, cedars, and other trees and plants.

Several buildings on the Base have asbestos roofs, Cdr. Donnelly said. But they are not a concern because the asbestos cannot become airborne, he said.

Asbestos pipe insulation in some buildings could become airborne. But if it is in crawl spaces and other areas people would not normally go without protective equipment, the Navy does not plan to remove it.

Dr. Gibbons said yesterday he would not comment on RT's findings until he received its final report.

But he confirmed that Government has sought expert help to prepare its environmental case. "We've talked to number of lawyers,'' Dr. Gibbons said.

"One of them, I'm sure would be based in Washington,'' and would "have some environmental experience''.