The US Government did not care about Bermuda's environment and knowingly dumped more than half a million gallons of untreated raw sewage into Bermuda's waters daily, according to a former employee of the US Naval Base.

The man, who was recently visiting the Island and spoke with The Royal Gazette on the condition that his identity not be revealed, said that the dumping happened for at least a year during the early 80's. He said that when he questioned this practise, he was quickly silenced by high-ranking officials on the base.

The former employee spoke out following the recently concluded deal between Britain and the US which ended the 99 year lease some 30 years ahead of schedule. The agreement left Bermuda with $11 million for the maintenance of Longbird Bridge, assurances of possible US assistance to the Bermuda Regiment - and massive quantities of pollutants in the environment. The cost of the clean-up has been put at around $60 million.

"I started working at the base and was assigned to the sewage treatment facility. As I was familiarising myself with the daily operations, I came across some documents which reflected that no chlorine was being put into the sewage before it was being flushed into the ocean, so I started to make inquiries," he said.

The man said that when he did this, the papers were immediately confiscated.

Soon after his discovery, he was told that he was being transferred to the Naval Annex in Southampton.

But a number of incidents took place before the move.

"The word `nigger' was written across my locker and people on the base were saying that I was a trouble-maker," he said.

Just before he was set to move to the Annex, he took the papers from his boss' office and hid them until he could retrieve them later.

The man expressed disbelief that base officials knew that the machinery needed to neutralise the sewage was not functioning, but did nothing to rectify the problem.

"I could not believe what was going on and worse still, no one seemed to care. They knew the chlorinators were broken. It's an awful thing that they've done to this Island," he said.

"The US Government didn't want the Bermuda people to know and it owes Bermuda much more than $11 million."

Out of fear of being severely reprimanded by the US Government, the man, who lives in the US, said he did nothing about his findings for about eighteen years. He simply held on to the documents.

But two years ago, he decided to send copies of the documents to then-Environmental Minister Arthur Hodgson but said that he never heard anything from him.

When contacted by The Royal Gazette, Mr. Hodgson said: "I don't have an immediate recollection of the papers, but if they were received, they would have been placed in the clean-up negotiations file."

Labour and Home Affairs minister Terry Lister, who took over the Environment portfolio after Mr. Hodgson, reviewed the documents on Tuesday, but said that they were unfamiliar to him.

The former Navy worker said that once he transferred to the Annex in Southampton, he knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be reassigned again, and in the mid-80's, he was informed that his contract would not be renewed and he would have to leave the Island.

In addition to the alleged dumping practices, the man also said that he believed that old electrical transformers with high PCB content that were supposed to be shipped to the States to dumping, were actually discarded in the North Shore Channel.

"I had a feeling that something was suspicious as the barge was going up at night," he said. "On the occasions that I have visited the Island, I've spoken to fishermen who said that they've discovered a number of dead fish as well as fish with tumorous growths."

But scientifically, his claims remain unsubstantiated. Interim director within the Ministry of Environment, John Barnes said that from time to time deformed fish have been discovered in the waters, but it is not an unusual occurrence.

"Heart defects and other phenomena been found in some fish as well, but no official study has actually been done," Mr. Barnes said.

While he could not confirm the man's claims, he did say that during the US's occupation here, most of the things dumped in the ocean were equipment such as pay loaders, buses and large items that could not be disposed of on land. He did stress, however, that the machinery should have been free of any oil or fuel to prevent any environmental damage.

The Royal Gazette gave a copy of the documents for a local scientist to peruse, but he said based on the data recorded, he could not ascertain how much damage, if any, was done to the marine environment.

To back up his claims, the man provided the names of two former employees of the base who he felt would know about these incidents. One of them said: "I know for a fact that those forms were forged to satisfy the (Bermuda) Health Department."

The man expressed deep regret for not saying something sooner, but he wanted his Government exposed for what he called "wrongdoings".

He said that if this type of activity took place in the US "they would sock it to us hard".