A groundwater quality investigation Okinawa City contracted two companies to conduct, a report released on Dec. 10 stated that arsenic 15 to 18 times over legal environmental limit was detected in samples taken from a farmland at Ikehara district of Okinawa City.

According to the results of a similar investigation at same site by Okinawa Prefecture in August this year, 13 times over legal limit of arsenic was detected.

According to report by Okinawa City, one of the two investigator companies detected 0.18 mg of arsenic per one liter of ground water exceeding 18 times the environmental legal limit, while the other company detected 0.15 mg per liter that exceeds 15 times the legal limit.

Several farm houses and factories are located surrounding the site.

The arsenic polluted area and the origin of the contamination are not known yet.

Okinawa City commented the possible the relation of the contamination with an industrial waste final processing facility close to the site, “This time, this is the result of the investigation at one point. The result is changing depending on the season. We cannot decide the origin without continuing the investigation in the future.”

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