The Royal Navy has commissioned an $8,000 study of the environment at HMS Malabar. The West End Base is scheduled to close on March 31.

The Navy has asked RT Environmental Services Inc. of Pennsyvlania -- the same company assessing the environment at the American Bases -- to carry out the study.

The state of the environment at the US Naval Air Station, which closes in September, and the already-closed US Naval Annex is a major obstacle in negotiations over the closure of those Bases. RT Environmental, hired by the Bermuda Government for $480,000, is close to completing its final report on the state of the American Bases.

At Malabar, "we've completed two site inspections and we have found the Base to be generally in very good shape,'' said project manager Mr. Peter Uhlman, who is vice-president of RT Environmental.

A draft report is to be submitted to the Royal Navy on Monday. The final report will also be copied to the Bermuda Government and the West End Development Corporation, which has leased the Dockyard lands to the Royal Navy.

"It will include in it any recommendations for follow-up investigation and clean-up, although we expect them to be minimal,'' Mr. Uhlman said. "Our initial finding is that there are only very, very minor areas that we need to do a little bit of follow-up on.'' The "non-invasive'' study involves a review of historic activity at the Base and an assessment of whether any of those activities had the potential to pollute, Mr. Uhlman said.

Potential problem areas identified were transformers, asbestos, cesspits, and storage tanks, he said. RT is also assessing the Shell terminal, which is on Wedco land formerly occupied by the Royal Navy.

Mr. Uhlman said it appeared there were no PCBs in Base transformers, use of asbestos at the Base was "very limited,'' and the cesspits were used for normal residential purposes. There are also two above ground storage tanks, one used in conjunction with the boiler, and the other in conjunction with an oil/water separator.

By ordering and paying for its own environmental study, the Royal Navy has taken a "proactive'' approach to the Base clean-up, Mr. Uhlman said. It is British Defence Ministry policy to "apply the same (environmental) standards abroad as they do at home.'' Similarly, the Canadian Government undertook its own environmental study at Daniel's Head, which closed last year, he said. And the Canadians were applying "at least the same standards that apply at home.'' But as it closed the US Naval Air Station at St. David's and the US Naval Annex at Southampton, the American Defence Department has pledged only to eliminate "known imminent and substantial dangers to human health and safety.'' Capt. Tim Bryan, Commanding Officer of NAS Bermuda, said he was bound by that policy once the closure was announced. But he said the Navy had been able to do extra environmental work, like landfill remediation, shoreline clean-up, and cleaning of underground tanks, by getting funds approved before the closure was made official.

As part of its work for the Bermuda Government, RT has reviewed the Canadian environmental study. Other than in the area of asbestos, "it does not look like there will be any follow-up remediation'' required, Mr. Uhlman said. "A third party is reviewing the asbestos (study), and I'm unable to comment on that.''