[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, FORMER SITES: "Army Corps to begin cleanup efforts at Fort Learnard in Unalaska Bay, " AK

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Few people realize that Unalaska, also known as Dutch Harbor, was bombed by the Japanese during World War II. - LS]

Army Corps to begin cleanup efforts at Fort Learnard in Unalaska Bay

By Theo Greenly
KUCB TV (Unalaska, AK)
May 5, 2023

The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to clean up Fort Learnard, a former World War II military outpost in Unalaska Bay.

The fort housed anti-aircraft and anti-ship artillery at Eider Point, on the western side of the bay.

The site was decommissioned after the war, and the artillery and munitions were exploded to dispose of them. But according to the corps, the explosion was not done in a controlled way.

“Fragments, and sometimes whole pieces of ammunition, were kicked out of the explosion,” said Ellen McDermott, who works with an engineering firm contracted for the cleanup. At a public meeting held in April, she said more than 200 munitions have been found in the area around Fort Learnard, most recently in 2016.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.kucb.org/regional/2023-05-05/army-corps-to-begin-cleanup-efforts-at-fort-learnard-in-unalaska-bay

See https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-20m-program-address-contaminated-lands-alaska for EPA’s press release on a grant program designed to address contamination on Native Lands throughout Alaska.

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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