WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- In the past five years, more than 50 unexploded devices have washed ashore on Assateague Island. The cleanup takes time and costs money, and that's why county officials are now looking to the feds for help.
On Tuesday, WBOC met with Worcester County Fire Marshal Matt Owens at Assateague National Seashore. The Fire Marshal's Office is often the responding agency, and Owens said the calls are becoming increasingly common.
"This weekend we were called down here, on Saturday, and there was five devices that had washed up on the shore," said Owens.
Disposing of the devices often involves controlled detonations, sometimes carried out with X-ray assistance from the Ocean City Fire Marshal's Office Bomb Squad and, well, explosion assistance from Dover Air Force Base. The process can take hours.
"You could have five to six hours tied up in one device," said Owens.
County officials say those extended responses come at a financial cost to local taxpayers. Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori said the federal government should share in that burden.
"The ordnances were federal, and the county taxpayers are then, kind of, we’re absorbing the costs of it, so we’re just looking for some cost sharing and investigations," said Fiori.
On Tuesday, the Worcester County Commissioners voted to send a letter to federal officials requesting financial assistance. The letter also seeks federal help to investigate and clean up the beach.
"We’re really hoping that this letter getting pushed forward, with the local support, pushing it to our federal partners, we’ll get some action out of the federal government to come down here and clean up what was left here in the forties," said Owens.
Both Owens and Fiori said they hope to receive a response, and see action, by this summer.
The Fire Marshal’s Office is also issuing a warning to the public. Officials say some people have recently been taking unexploded ordnance off the beach and bringing it home. The office is urging anyone who finds a suspicious device to leave it where it is and notify a park ranger instead.