[CPEO-MEF] REUSE, PFAS: Former Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, Illinois

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

‘Mission Accomplished’ for Rantoul air force base, yet $76 million of environmental clean-up work remains amidst its deteriorating buildings

By Elissa Eaton and Said Nonoal 
CU-CitizenAccess
February 26, 2025

Numerous abandoned buildings still sit on the 2,125 acres of the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. Some are boarded up — others have broken doors and shattered windows that allow for easy access. 

...

The base was primarily used as an Air Force firefighter training facility when it opened, Carroll said. Because of this, a toxic fire extinguisher known as aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) was used at Chanute. 

“Chanute pioneered the use of AFFF for the Air Force in 1970,” Carroll said. “It was a huge firefighting training activity going on there for several decades before the base closed.

…

For the entire article, see
https://cu-citizenaccess.org/2025/02/mission-accomplished-for-rantoul-air-force-base-yet-76-million-of-environmental-clean-up-work-remains-amidst-its-deteriorating-buildings 

—

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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