Station said this week.

And Bermudians should not be worried about Americans leaving an environmental mess at the Base, Capt. Tim Bryan told The Royal Gazette .

He was reacting to media reports that the US Navy was accused of refusing to clean up an environmental mess at a base they were closing in Argentia, Newfoundland.

Capt. Bryan said he did not know all the details about the naval base at Argentia. But a remote base in a huge country like Canada could not be compared to NAS Bermuda, which took up a large part of Bermuda's land mass and interacted closely with the Country.

"It creates a different environment from which one does business,'' said Capt. Bryan, who promised that land on the Base would be left "in a condition, at least, that the rest of Bermuda is.'' The Navy was working on a transition and turnover plan for the Base, which it hoped to present to Government within the next one to two weeks, he said.

The plan would include an environmental component, said Capt. Bryan, who believed it would alleviate any concerns on the Island.

The plan, which would include a timetable and details on what the Navy planned to take and leave behind, was "mostly a Navy document, to tell our folks how in a logical fashion the withdrawal will happen,'' he said.

But, "I wanted it to be a document for the Bermudian Government to read too -- to understand what we're doing and how we're doing it.'' The Base had had an environmental division for years and an excellent track record, he said.

Capt. Bryan discounted a US Defence Department report that said it would cost $33.5 million to clean up the Base. Those numbers were "not credible,'' he said.

Although an NAS Bermuda spokesman last year said a contract awarded to OHM Corp. of New Jersey included environmental clean-up at the local Base, Capt.

Bryan said the work was being done by Base personnel.

He did not expect the clean-up would have to extend beyond September of 1995.

"I think it's important for an educated person to understand you can't take nature and convert it for man's use and then expect it to be returned ... in its preconverted condition,'' he said.

For example, the landfill had been used for decades, just as the Pembroke Dump had, and could not be returned to its former beach condition. But it could be graded, capped with soil, and returned to undeveloped land, he said.

Capt. Tim Bryan.