Study Finds Army Provided Poor Public Communications In Groundwater Contamination

A new study by the National Research Council faults the Army for poor public communications in the long-running debate over possible groundwater contamination at Maryland's Fort Detrick. The panel found that data on whether the pollution is responsible for cancer clusters in surrounding communities is inconclusive, and that further studies probably would not yield any solid answers. But it points to what it calls a legacy of mistrust by community members toward the Army, who it says needs to be more effective in communicating the results of health studies.