The United States Mission to Vietnam, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), announced on July 27 a new contract worth approximately US$32 million to clean up dioxin contamination at the Bien Hoa Air Base in the southern province of Dong Nai.

USAID awarded the civil works contract to the US firm Tetra Tech to continue the cleanup of dioxin-contaminated soil in and around the Bien Hoa Air Base.

Excavation, dewatering and drainage, stockpile, and transport for low concentration soil in and around the Bien Hoa Air Base. Photo: USAID

Under the contract, Tetra Tech will provide engineering design, construction management, and environmental monitoring of civil works and treatment activities for dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment to reduce the risk of exposure to people on the air base and in the surrounding communities and return the land to full use.

In March, during her visit to Vietnam, USAID Administrator Samantha Power joined US and Vietnamese government officials to announce another contract of up to $73 million awarded to Nelson Environmental Remediation USA, an American small business, to design and build a treatment facility to decontaminate soil and sediment on and around the Bien Hoa Air Base.

Since April 2019, USAID has worked with the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to remediate approximately 500,000 cubic meters of dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment on and around the Bien Hoa Air Base.

In 2022, USAID completed the remediation of an off-base lake (Gate 2 Lake) and returned it to the community for use as a recreational area, completed the remediation of the first on-base area (Southwest area), commemorating this milestone with a US government-funded park on the site, and completed the construction of the long-term storage facility for soil with low levels of contamination.

The Bien Hoa Air Base Area Dioxin Remediation Project is expected to take 10 years to complete and cost an estimated $450 million. To date, the US government's contribution is $218.255 million out of an expected total commitment of $300 million.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive partnership between the United States and Vietnam. The two sides' close cooperation over the past decades to overcome the legacies of war is another example of how the US and Vietnam strategically working together to create a better future for our two peoples.