Government has brought in a company specialising in toxicology to help with the environmental assessment of the US Bases being returned to Bermuda.

Cantox Inc. of Halifax, Canada is using the findings of main environmental contractor RT Environmental Services Inc. of Pennsylvania to conduct "risk assessments'' at the US Naval Air Station at St. David's and the US Naval Annex at Southampton.

Among other problems, leakage of underground fuel storage tanks has been found at both Bases, Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

The Cantox study is estimated to cost about $150,000.

RT, which has drilled more than 2,000 holes and taken samples at the two Bases, will soon complete the second phase of its environmental study, Dr.

Gibbons said.

Once RT's phase two study is completed, the findings will be scrutinised by another group of experts and the report will be turned over to the US Navy.

The company will then have about another four weeks of phase three to complete. The third phase is intended to determine the extent of the problem areas identified in phase two.

Cantox, whose people have been in Bermuda off and on since November, will assess risk to human health and the environment generally, and its report will include assessment of how the land might be used in future, he said.

Among other uses, the Cantox study "allows you to prioritise what needs to be cleaned up.'' Government has repeatedly said the Navy is expected to leave the Base lands in good environmental condition. But exactly how the environment will be addressed remains the subject of negotiations.

The Hon. Grant Gibbons