Army Pays To Connect 5 Homes Near Fort Detrick To City Water

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — The Army says it has paid $62,000 to connect five homes near Fort Detrick to the Frederick city water supply nearly 12 years after toxic chemicals were found in their wells.

Fort Detrick says in a statement that the connections were completed Friday.

The Army had supplied the homes with bottled water for cooking and drinking ever since the chlorinated solvents were detected in the wells.

The tainted water prompted an environmental investigation and excavation of some former waste-disposal pits in a part of the base called Area B.

A wrongful death lawsuit alleging harm from the groundwater pollution is pending in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A judge in Baltimore dismissed the case in August, but the plaintiffs appealed.

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