Minor Ammo Factory Seen as Major Polluter

At the Army ammunition factory here, six of the eight production lines are shut. The work force, which peaked at 2,500 during the Vietnam War, now numbers 200.

Yet, although demand for grenade casings has taken a dramatic slump, the Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant near Modesto may remain active for decades. James F. Gansel, coordinator of the toxic waste cleanup of the plant, predicted that the Army will be extracting chromium and cyanide from the ground water here for the next 20 years.

Health officials have found that even seemingly insignificant military outposts can pose mighty problems. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency ranked this little-known base as the Defense Department’s No. 1 domestic problem. A complex scoring system was used to analyze the types of pollutants and the risks they present to people and the environment.

“It was a shock,” Gansel said, and EPA officials agreed that Riverbank’s problems pale in comparison to conditions at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento or at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County. (Those bases have far more sources of pollution and more varied toxins found in greater volumes.)

Ground water tainted with chromium, a suspected carcinogen, has migrated beyond Riverbank’s boundaries and fouled five domestic wells. If left untreated, reports done for the EPA say, the tainted water could, in time, drift into Modesto’s water supply.

Kathleen Tackett has lived a short walk from the base since 1964. Lately, she has taken to drinking bottled water. She is convinced that, after years of drinking water from her household well, her body can tolerate no more of it. “I feel like it’s going to get me,” she said of the water.

A block away, Loyd Fanin said that, when he used to drink the water, he would become dizzy, get sick to his stomach and have headaches that made him feel as if the back of his head was “going to blow off.”

The Army has dug a new well to supply the Fanin home, and tests show the water is safe to drink. Still, the Fanins say, their symptoms disappeared after they switched to bottled drinking water.

“I hope,” Barbara Fanin said, “that they find (the cause of their symptoms) before Loyd and I kick the bucket and people say, ‘Well, I guess there was something wrong, after all.’ ”