00001

02 WEDGEWOOD COMMUNITY MEETING

03 *******************************************************

05 PLACE: SC School for the Deaf and the Blind

05 Swearingen Conference Center

07 DATE: Thursday, July 27, 2000

08 TIME: 7:05 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

10 PRESENTATIONS

10 GIVEN BY: Ronald Nesbit, Jr.

11 Project Manager

11 US Army Corps of Engineers

12 Charleston District

13 Suzy McKinney

13 Zapata Engineering, P.A.

14 1100 Kenilworth Avenue, Suite 104

14 Charlotte, North Carolina 28204

16 ALSO PRESENT:

17 John S. Hinely

17 Realty Specialist

18 US Army Corps of Engineers

18 Savannah District

20 REPORTED BY:

21 Sandy Satterwhite Reporting

21 P.O. Box 742

22 Roebuck, South Carolina 29376

22 (864)574-1455

00002

01 INDEX

02 Welcome by Ms. Suzy McKinney . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

03 Statement by Mr. Ronald Nesbit, Jr. . . . . . . . .10

04 Certificate of Reporter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

00003

01 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

02 We'll go ahead and get started. Good evening.

03 I'm glad to see all of you were able to make it this

04 afternoon, and we'll try to get out of here before the

05 storms roll through.

06 For those of you who not know, Ron Nesbit is the

07 project manager from the US Army Corps of Engineers in

08 Charleston, and John Hinely is with the Corps of

09 Engineers real estate office out of Savannah. I think

10 everyone has met both of these gentlemen.

11 What we want to do this evening is bring you up

12 to date on the status of the removal actions in

13 Wedgewood, and we should all have a handout. And this

14 map depicts essentially all the lots except Lot 40,

15 which is the vacant lot next to the Holts, and Lot 17,

16 which is the Geigers' residence. All other lots have

17 been cleared, and you should be receiving letters of

18 clearance in the mail within the next month.

19 Those two lots actually contain some burial pits

20 that to go in and dig by hand is extremely labor

21 intensive. They spent several weeks, UXB, the

22 contractor spent several weeks in Lot 40 hand digging

23 through just metal debris and trash and it was

24 extremely tedious. The same thing had occurred with

25 the Geigers.

00004

01 So the game plan is after the first of the

02 fiscal year when additional funds become available is

03 for the Corps to have their contractor go back to

04 these last two properties to complete them, but all

05 the other properties have been completed and you will

06 have your letters within the next month from the Corps

07 of Engineers.

08 The hatched areas on the map indicate properties

09 or parcels where no evidence of ordnance or ordnance

10 related materials were found out of the scrap that was

11 removed. All of the remaining properties have some

12 evidence of ordnance, mostly scrap, and that's just

13 for clarification so you can kind of get a gauge on

14 how maybe the usage was back in the area in the time

15 when they were training.

16 Just for informational purposes, to give you a

17 gauge on and to help you understand why it was so

18 labor intensive and did take so long to complete this

19 effort, on the average each property had between 50

20 and 250 metal anomalies items under the ground that

21 were detected by the geophysical equipment that were

22 dug by hand, one by one. Ms. Pike actually had over

23 1,000 in her yard. You win the award. A lot of that

24 was rock, magnetic rock that you can't tell it until

25 you dig it up.

00005

01 So, again, why it took four or five or six days

02 on some of these properties was just one by one

03 digging within that metal unit, and then for the Corps

04 of Engineers to come back in and do the quality

05 assurance checks to make sure what was dug matched the

06 data and that everything was removed.

07 For information purposes, 1,700 pounds of

08 ordnance related scrap, practice grenades, pieces of

09 metal were found in the neighborhood; almost 1,600

10 pounds of non-ordnance related household scrap. 1,500

11 pounds were found. So over 3,000 pounds of scrap was

12 pulled out of the neighborhood. So, again, the level

13 of effort to hand dig all of that.

14 We want to thank you and emphasize our

15 appreciation and all of your cooperation for being

16 available to be out of the neighborhood when the crews

17 were in there. It was a long and tedious summer, as

18 you all know, that your attitude and cooperation made

19 an extremely tedious and difficult effort even easier

20 than would normally have been with this many people

21 that were impacted. Again, we greatly appreciate

22 that.

23 John Hinely and I visited everyone in February

24 and provided forms for reimbursement. If you have any

25 questions, comments, concerns, he's here. You can

00006

01 talk to him about those forms.

02 BY MR. BARNES:

03 I've got my form.

04 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

05 You've got your form? He's here to ---

06 BY MR. BARNES:

07 No, it's finished. I've got it complete.

08 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

09 Great.

10 BY MR. BARNES:

11 Who do I give it to? If he's not with you,

12 I'll take it back.

13 BY MR. HINELY:

14 I'll take it.

15 BY MR. BARNES:

16 I see you, and I'll be with you after awhile.

17 BY MR. HINELY:

18 All right.

19 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

20 To back track, as far as this ordnance related

21 scrap, over 50 practice grenades were found scattered

22 across the properties; 12 white phosphorous grenades,

23 which are extremely dangerous, were found in one pit,

24 and those were disposed of accordingly.

25 BY MR. HOLT:

00007

01 Where was that?

02 BY MS. HOLT:

03 Where?

04 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

05 It was Geigers. In the backyard of Geigers'

06 property. So that's why they need to go back in and

07 finish that, but they were found all together like

08 they were intentionally buried.

09 There was no evidence in all of the scrap that

10 was found in the neighborhood, the pieces of metal

11 that were dug, no evidence that any of those were from

12 grenades, and the indication of that leads us to

13 believe is that none of the grenades were live

14 grenades that were used in the area. They were all

15 practice because they did not -- the one that did

16 explode -- there were none that exploded. There was

17 no fragment found. So they were either found intact

18 as a hollow inner grenade or it was just other pieces

19 of scrap that were found.

20 Let's see, the plans for the upcoming year right

21 now, funds are short to finish the remaining two

22 properties and to go back out on to the golf course to

23 complete the efforts out there.

24 After the first of the fiscal year, the

25 contractor will revise the work plans; or if it's a

00008

01 new contractor, prepare the work plans to go out to

02 finish those remaining properties. And what's being

03 thought of now, since they are pits that do have a lot

04 of metallic debris in it, is to go in there with a

05 mechanical, a bulldozer or some type of mechanical

06 device to do it quick and get in and get out instead

07 of having someone dig it up by hand. What that might

08 mean, especially since white phosphorous grenades were

09 found on the one pit, is that for one or two days we

10 might ask the entire neighborhood to be gone in case

11 something does go wrong. When you're not manually

12 digging, you lose some of that control.

13 Again, we would work directly with you on what's

14 the best day where most of the people are going to be

15 at work or at school and minimize your disruption.

16 That's not going to happen until well after October.

17 So, again, only on those two remaining properties.

18 Any questions?

19 BY MR. BARBEE:

20 If you evacuate like the whole neighborhood,

21 could we all like go to Hilton Head?

22 BY MR. HINELY:

23 If we don't contract the hotel, you can stay

24 anywhere you want, but you are limited to the per diem

25 rate in Spartanburg. So if you want to go to Hilton

00009

01 Head, you can get you a hotel, but you might not get

02 100 percent reimbursement for it.

03 BY AUDIENCE MEMBER:

04 That means we'll all go to Croft State Park.

05 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

06 With a tent.

07 BY AUDIENCE MEMBER:

08 Plus the tent.

09 BY AUDIENCE MEMBER:

10 Really that's the Croft State Park Motel, isn't

11 it?

12 BY AUDIENCE MEMBER:

13 Yeah. Pitching tents.

14 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

15 Again, the hopes would be that would be one to

16 two days where they can get in there with the

17 bulldozers, scoop it all out, contain it and take it

18 off site to sift through it and address it accordingly

19 just to get it physically out of the neighborhood.

20 BY MR. HOLT:

21 But you said that would be after October?

22 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

23 Right, the contractor has -- is gone. UXB is no

24 longer onsite. The trailer is closed down. Our 800

25 number is still operational, so any questions come up,

00010

01 any concerns, you can call us and we can get you the

02 answers that you need. We want to make sure that any

03 grievances or concerns you might have had with

04 shrubberies, your yard, all of that has been taken

05 care of. If anyone still has any outstanding issues

06 or concerns, and also if you have any feedback just on

07 the process and the coordination and the interaction,

08 anything that can help us do our job better next go

09 around will be greatly appreciated.

10 John, Ron, any questions, any comments?

11 BY MR. NESBIT:

12 I just want to make a couple of comments.

13 I haven't been where you have seen me on the

14 sites during the course of the work or any of the time

15 when folks made visits around the site, but I have

16 been up here a number of times when the contractor was

17 on site. You know, of course, because of the safety

18 requirements, it's relatively difficult at best to

19 even get close to the area while work is actually

20 ongoing. So, a lot of my observation has been by

21 binoculars off on the side.

22 Talking with Karl, he is the representative from

23 Huntsville, he's been very pleased with the

24 cooperation that he has received from the community

25 for many reasons: One, because if you had any

00011

01 concerns, you brought them directly to people that we

02 addressed earlier on so that we can get whatever the

03 problem was taken care of as quickly as possible;

04 secondly, you've been very cooperative in moving from

05 your homes or making certain that you're away during

06 certain times of the day while work was going on in

07 your property or in an adjacent property or something

08 like that. Especially this time of the year I know

09 that it was somewhat of a burden for you, and I want

10 you to know from our -- from my commander, Colonel

11 Held at Charleston District, he sends his deepest

12 appreciation for what you've actually -- the way

13 you've worked with us this past summer as well as the

14 springtime.

15 We still have a little more work to do to finish

16 up your immediate area. We will do that as early as

17 we can once the fiscal year and we have additional

18 funds in hand. I know when I say it that way it

19 sounds as though we're having funding problems and/or

20 will we, in fact, be coming back. Well, I can

21 guarantee you one thing, we will be coming back. I

22 can guarantee you that we will be taking care of this

23 problem as soon as we possibly can because it's a

24 still high priority for us to get this area cleaned

25 up. Okay. So that's not to worry.

00012

01 BY MS. HOLT:

02 Is the new fiscal year October?

03 BY MR. NESBIT:

04 It begins October 1. Now that does not mean we

05 get the money October 1.

06 BY MS. HOLT:

07 Yeah.

08 BY MR. NESBIT:

09 But that's the time frame when we start

10 expecting the funds to come in within that month or

11 the following month thereafter. Okay.

12 This is one of the years for the FUDS program

13 when funding was going to be shorter than it ever has

14 been in the past for a number of different reasons.

15 We are still hopeful that that might change because of

16 some other cuts in government, other places in funding

17 be re-diverted to us because we do have a definite

18 need.

19 When you look at all the properties in the State

20 of South Carolina that we are responsible to either

21 investigate or clean up, the amount of money that we

22 are being appropriated falls far short from what we

23 really need. To complete this area we are very short.

24 So that's one of the reasons why you see the work

25 that's being done is being done incrementally in terms

00013

01 of aggressively trying to take care of the problems as

02 we go along; and, of course, land use of that property

03 dictates a lot of what we do, and that's how we really

04 go about trying to make certain things happen.

05 One thing I might mention, John is here tonight.

06 Take advantage of him.

07 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

08 He writes the checks.

09 BY MR. NESBIT:

10 Especially from the standpoint of submitting

11 your forms, and if you have any questions about how or

12 some information you might need to add or questions,

13 whatever, make certain you get that from him tonight

14 if you can. We would like for you to get your forms

15 submitted as soon as possible because the sooner you

16 get it done, the sooner we can get reimbursement back

17 to you and the sooner we can close out the books prior

18 to the end of the fiscal year. Because September 30th

19 is the end of the fiscal year, and there about a month

20 or so prior to that, if we feel that we've received

21 all of the forms in, what little money that was left

22 may be extracted and sent elsewhere, and I don't want

23 that to happen here. I want to be certain that we

24 have you taken care of as soon as we possibly can.

25 BY MS. HOLT:

00014

01 So that would mean that you're bringing in

02 bigger equipment like the bulldozers and such that's

03 faster and cheaper.

04 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

05 That's the objective for the next ---

06 BY MS. HOLT:

07 Bottom line?

08 BY MR. NESBIT:

09 That's the bottom line.

10 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

11 Especially since they're pits.

12 BY MR. NESBIT:

13 Yeah.

14 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

15 They're not individuals scattered anomalies.

16 BY MR. NESBIT:

17 Let's see, we've got -- it's situated in such a

18 way where engineeringly it makes it the more

19 appropriate thing to do.

20 BY MS. HOLT:

21 Okay.

22 BY MS. PIKE:

23 How deep are they?

24 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

25 That I'm not sure of. That's a good question.

00015

01 BY MR. NESBIT:

02 Well, it's hard to tell from the mechanical -- I

03 mean, from the equipment when we take over, and I'll

04 tell you this -- the reason why. There are over --

05 you know, they were dumped together, and you may have

06 a reading up high that shows it about two feet or

07 three feet when, in fact, you may have a six or eight

08 as well, because you can't really get a depth of where

09 it stands by the way they're stacked in the hole

10 together.

11 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

12 The ones that are ---

13 BY MR. NESBIT:

14 So you might have one reading on top of the

15 other.

16 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

17 Yeah. The ones that were ---

18 BY MR. NESBIT:

19 It might give a false reading.

20 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

21 --- removed, I'm not sure how deep they were,

22 and I can go through some status reports I brought

23 with me and see if that was ---

24 BY MS. PIKE:

25 They have already removed it from my property?

00016

01 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

02 Yes. Yes. So anything else that was remaining

03 is either scrap or possibly some additional well below

04 the surface.

05 BY MR. NESBIT:

06 Yes.

07 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

08 They back filled and secured that area so that,

09 you know, it's not -- someone is not going to trip

10 over, they did it at a great depth, and it's been back

11 filled.

12 BY MR. NESBIT:

13 Right. It's not a depth where nothing, quote

14 unquote, can happen from a standpoint of someone

15 driving over it or digging at it with a shovel or ---

16 BY MS. HOLT:

17 They have children there.

18 BY MR. NESBIT:

19 Pardon me?

20 BY MS. HOLT:

21 They have children, the Geigers.

22 BY MR. NESBIT:

23 Oh, yes, and what they have done they have made

24 certain that it's a safe situation, okay, until we go

25 back in to take it out. We've been assured of that.

00017

01 Okay. But that's -- I just wanted to bring

02 those things to you and give you an opportunity to ask

03 any questions of me if you have any. Hopefully not,

04 but if you do, I'm here to try to answer whatever I

05 can.

06 BY MR. HOLT:

07 So you say you're going to come back and do Lot

08 17 and Lot 40 with the bulldozers?

09 BY MR. NESBIT:

10 Those are the two.

11 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

12 That's the objective.

13 BY MR. NESBIT:

14 That's the objective.

15 BY MS. HOLT:

16 Is that next to us?

17 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

18 Yes.

19 BY MR. NESBIT:

20 Yes.

21 BY MS. HOLT:

22 What happened to that refrigerator they dug up

23 next to us?

24 BY MR. HOLT:

25 Let me tell you, Lot 40 was a liquor store.

00018

01 There was nothing down in that hole but liquor bottles

02 and beer cans. There must have been ---

03 BY MS. HOLT:

04 And a refrigerator.

05 BY MR. HOLT:

06 Yeah, it must have been the bar, though, the O

07 Club or the NCO Club.

08 BY MS. PIKE:

09 Was it a refrigerator or an old timey ice box?

10 BY MS. HOLT:

11 Just a refrigerator.

12 BY MR. NESBIT:

13 That might have been where they had all the

14 parties. I don't know.

15 BY MS. PIKE:

16 Was it a refrigerator or an old timey ice box?

17 BY MR. HOLT:

18 It might have been ---

19 BY MR. NESBIT:

20 I know they -- they take all the scrap, and then

21 they dispose of it in a special way, but I don't know

22 where it is.

23 Any other questions?

24 BY MR. MATHIS:

25 In other words, the solid blue had something on

00019

01 it?

02 BY MR. NESBIT:

03 Yes.

04 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

05 No, the solid blue indicates that those areas

06 the ordnance -- the removal is complete.

07 BY MR. NESBIT:

08 Oh, I'm sorry.

09 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

10 Oh, yeah, and then the hatched area is the ---

11 BY MR. NESBIT:

12 The solid blue.

13 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

14 You're right. The plain solid blue. Right.

15 BY MR. MATHIS:

16 Had something on it?

17 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

18 Had some form of scrap or ordnance related.

19 BY MR. MATHIS:

20 Are you going to tell us what that is?

21 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

22 All -- the only properties where actually

23 practice grenades were found that I have in my records

24 from Ms. Pike's property on -- and the Geigers'

25 property, the white phosphorus grenades and on

00020

01 Teasters' property.

02 BY MR. MATHIS:

03 I'm on Lot 23, and you said there was something

04 found in my yard?

05 BY MR. BARNES:

06 Yeah, you had a lot of rocks.

07 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

08 Lot 23, all I have ---

09 BY MR. MATHIS:

10 And my television cable is about the only thing

11 I think they found. They found it on ---

12 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

13 There was one pound of -- well, I think

14 everybody kind of went through that.

15 BY MS. HOLT:

16 It was always on a Friday.

17 BY MR. MATHIS:

18 Yeah, it was.

19 BY MS. HOLT:

20 So you would get up and it would have to be over

21 the weekend.

22 BY MR. MATHIS:

23 Yeah, it was. That's right.

24 BY MS. HOLT:

25 That's just wrong.

00021

01 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

02 You had one pound of ordnance related scrap.

03 BY MR. NESBIT:

04 That's just scrap.

05 BY MR. MATHIS:

06 Scrap.

07 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

08 That's just scrap, and you had 13 pounds of

09 household debris, rocks.

10 BY MR. MATHIS:

11 That sounds more like it, because we -- we knew

12 that.

13 BY MR. NESBIT:

14 Yeah.

15 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

16 You had 13 pounds of non OE.

17 BY MR. MATHIS:

18 We filled it in eight foot, so I just figured,

19 you know, if we did, we'd haul it in the truck.

20 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

21 Does anybody else want to know their poundage?

22 BY MR. HOLT:

23 Do you know by lot?

24 BY MR. MCCALLISTER:

25 Lot 30.

00022

01 BY MS. PIKE:

02 Do you know the poundage that came from each

03 lot?

04 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

05 Yes.

06 BY MS. PIKE:

07 Okay. Thank you.

08 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

09 Well, Ms. Pike, I'll have to add yours up.

10 Yours is what? Hang on.

11 Lot 30, you had four pounds of OE related scrap

12 and 21 pounds of non OE.

13 BY MS. BARBEE:

14 What's OE?

15 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

16 Ordnance.

17 BY MR. NESBIT:

18 Ordnance.

19 BY MR. PETTY:

20 How about 32 and 33?

21 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

22 32 had 3 pounds that was ordnance related and 15

23 pounds non-ordnance.

24 BY MR. HOLT:

25 How about 39?

00023

01 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

02 Ms. Pike, see, I can't do the math that fast.

03 Hang on. I'll get to you, Ms. Pike.

04 Lot 39, 1 1/2 pounds OE related and 25 pounds

05 non-ordnance related scrap.

06 BY MS. BARBEE:

07 Well, while you're there, look at 38.

08 BY MS. MCKINNEY:

09 One pound ordnance related, 36 pounds non.

10 So if you added up nails and bottle caps and

11 whatever else they're digging, 36 pounds is a fair

12 amount of hand digging. Okay.