michigan

On July 10, 2018 Michigan’s MLive Media Group reported that a U.S. Coast Guard maintenance hangar at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemons, Michigan experienced an “inadvertent discharge of about 20 gallons of AFFF foam” on June 7. AFFF is aqueous film-forming foam that contains toxic chemicals containing a variety of per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They are used in fire-fighting foams.

As an infant in the early 1980s, Brent Wilson lived with his family at Camp Lejeune, a U.S. Marine base in North Carolina. His father, GI Wilson, a retired colonel who had a decorated 37-year military career, was stationed on the base for several years between combat assignments. Little did the Wilson family know, simply being on that military base and drinking the water there could cause cancer.

WAFB began operations in 1923, under the name of Camp Skeel, and was officially named the Wurtsmith Air Force Base in 1953.  The base is located in Oscoda, Iosco County, Michigan. WAFB closed in 1993 and is gradually being turned over to the Oscoda Airport Authority for reuse as an industrial park and airfield (EPA 2012).  The 5,221-acre site is bounded by Van Etten Lake to the north and east, Oscoda and Au Sable Townships to the east and south, the Huron National Forest (including wetlands associated with the Au Sable River) to the south, and the Au Sable State Forest to the north and west.  Lake Huron is less than one mile east of the site (ATSDR 2001).

In 2011, the state of Michigan took over control in Flint after a budget emergency, and state officials later decided to switch over the city’s water system from Lake Huron to the Flint River temporarily to save money. Since then, lead and other contaminants invaded the Flint water supply and poisoned the population, especially children.  People are outraged and making a lot of noise.