Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.
Chippewa County International Airport - Ashley Miller, MillerA65@Michigan.gov or 906-235-7435.
Department of Defense - Kenneth Heitkamp, HeitkampK@Michigan.gov or 517-930-5218.
The Department of Defense (DoD) acquired the former Kincheloe Air Force Base (KAFB) in 1941 and operated it until 1976. DoD officially closed KAFB in 1977.
In 1990 DoD identified the KAFB as a formerly use defense site (FUDS) property. As a FUDS property, DoD is responsible for environmental cleanup and restoration. The Army is the lead agency for the FUDS cleanup program; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) manages the program on behalf of Army and DoD.
The KAFB covers 7,265 acres and consists of airstrips, aircraft support and fueling facilities, fuel storage areas, command and control centers, training facilities, base housing and base landfills (e.g. Landfill 01). Starting in the early 1990s USACE began investigating these areas, some of which are ongoing. During some of these investigations USACE discovered significant soil and groundwater contamination, and as a result, implemented several interim response actions. For example, in the mid-2000s USACE constructed new municipal drinking water wells and pump house for Kinross Township to replace municipal wells impacted or threatened by chlorinated volatile organic compounds detected in the groundwater.
EGLE has detected PFAS in groundwater at four potential PFAS source areas: Landfill 01 (LF01) located at the north end of the KAFB, Landfill 02 (LF02) located just east of Hiawatha Correctional, a former Fuel Storage Area (FSA) just north of the Chippewa County International Airport (CIU), and the Fire Training Area (FTA) at the south end of the airport runway. A fifth source of PFAS was discovered when the CIU completed soil and groundwater sampling near the maintenance building that CIU uses for conducting its required testing of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) equipment used for firefighting purposes.
Groundwater flow at the KAFB is primarily south/southeast, except for LF01 where the groundwater appears to flow in several directions. There are two watersheds within the KAFB boundary. The Waiska River which is north of LF01 and the Munuscong River which is hydraulically downgradient from the FSA and the FTA.
Content posted February 2021
See an aerial view of the location of the site.
Two residential homes were offered point of use filters. One residence has confirmed installation.
CCHD will continue with its contacting of residences which had drinking water exceedances for PFOA in the August 2020 sampling event to offer point of use filters and to answer any questions they may have. EGLE staff will seek additional state funding to sample additional residential drinking water wells that may be at risk from the PFAS contamination that was discovered at CIU.
|
Type of Sample |
Date Sampled |
# of Samples |
# of Results Received |
# of Non-detects |
# Between Non-detect and standard* |
#>Standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Monitoring Wells |
Aug 2019 - May 2020 | 45 | 45 | 16 | 17 | 12 |
| Residential Wells | Jan 2020 | 19 | 19 | 13 | 6 | 0 |
| Surface Water | May 2020 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
Cumulative |
65 | 65 | 29 | 24 | 12 |
* Groundwater results are compared to EGLE Part 201 Criteria of 70 ppt PFOS+PFOA.
* Residential well results are compared to the USEPA Lifetime Health Advisory Level of 70 ppt PFOS+PFOA.
|
Type of Sample |
Date Sampled (or range) |
Number of Sample |
Number of Samples above |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Residential Wells |
August 25 - 27, 2020 - November 2020 | 29 | 5 |
| Drinking Water (Commercial) | November 4, 2020 | 2 | 0 |
| Groundwater Monitoring Wells | October 19 - 20, 2020 | 4 | 3 |
