Speaking of lists, Fort Detrick just made the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List. 

Better known as the Superfund list, it targets the Army base in Frederick for federal attention in dealing with stubborn ground-water contamination there that has tainted the wells of nearby homes.  Five residences are still being supplied with bottled water, though, the EPA notes in a press release.

Area B, an undeveloped portion of Fort Detrick, was used long ago as a germ-warfare testing ground, though officials say no harmful biological agents were ever tested in the open there.  The Army also dumped chemical, biological, and radiological material in pits there from the 1940s until 1970, according to EPA.  Among the chemicals that made it into the ground water were potentially carcinogenic solvents like trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

With the installation now home to biodefense labs and civilian research facilities, the Army has made efforts to find and remove the buried wastes over the years.  The service says it's spent $43 million and capped all but one of the known disposal sites.

But the work has been complicated by the fractured rock layers beneath the base, according to Ben Mykijewycz, who oversees hazardous waste cleanups on federal lands for EPA in the mid-Atlantic region.  The Army argued EPA oversight wasn't necessary, but Mykijewycz said Maryland environmental officials asked for a federal takeover of the cleanup because they were having difficulty getting the military to follow state orders.

(Photo Getty Images 2002)