OSCODA, MI (MPRN)-- The Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport Authority has been awarded a $60,000 grant to assess chemical contaminants.
The airport, which is on the site of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, is a known site of several chemical contaminants, including PFAS - which are linked to cancer among other maladies.
The grant comes through the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Garry Kellan is the airport manager at the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport.
“The grant is going to help us do an environmental site investigation of some high value development sites. Those sites are earmarked for airport maintenance hangar development,” he says.
Kellan says businesses interested in building new hangers at the airport raised concerns about contamination.
He says the grant will help identify how to revitalize and reuse the contaminated sites.