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The Army Corps of Engineers is cleaning up diesel-contaminated soil in Unalaska, nearing completion of the last remaining locations of their decades-long cleanup efforts in the Unalaska Valley. They contracted with the recently-formed OC Environmental Services, an environmental firm owned and operated by Unalaska’s Native corporation, to conduct the field cleanup, and say the cleanup should be finished within the next few weeks.
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The United States military left many contaminated areas around Unalaska when they pulled out after World War II, like oil tanks and chemicals that polluted streams and soils. Now, the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska is teaming up with scientists from universities in Arizona, Nevada and Alaska to address the contamination.
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The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska will be holding a series of classes Monday on environmental monitoring at old U.S. defense sites. According to the Tribe, these sites from World War II have persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are harmful if consumed at high levels.
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The Army Corps of Engineers is moving closer to dealing with a contaminated World War II-era military site long abandoned in the Aleutian Islands. At a meeting Wednesday night in Unalaska, representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers said they would send a contractor to Chernofski Harbor in May. They aim to remove around 800 tons of soil and debris that was contaminated by diesel oil tanks during World War II. The cleanup site covers more than 1,200 acres in Chernofski Harbor, on the southwestern edge of Unalaska Island. Chernofski village was inhabited for thousands of years, but people stopped living there in the early 20th century, and the navy operated a port there from 1942 to 1945.