A 2003 view of the Northeast Cape Air Force Station on St. Lawrence Island. Photo from Alaska Division of Spill Prevention and Response

An Air Force installation on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska was in operation for less than two decades but Native residents are still dealing with the toxic fallout.

The Northeast Cape Air Force Station was built near traditional Native camp sites. It ran from 1953 to 1969, during which the military tested polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemicals that are known to cause cancer.

Five people in one Native family in the village of Savoonga have since been diagnosed with cancer, The New York Times reports. Only about 720 people live in the community, the paper said.

In 2007, the United States Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would cost $1 billion to clean up the 4,800-acre site, the Associated Press reported. So far, the agency has spent $110 million, the Times said.

Meanwhile, village residents are hoping to find out more about the effects of PCBs in their food supply. Fish have shown elevated levels of the chemicals.

“Our traditional foods are killing our people,” Vi Waghiyi, a resident who helped start Alaska Community Action on Toxics, told the Times. “But without our traditional foods, we die as a culture.”

Get the Story:
Native Alaskans Study and Clean Up a Legacy of Pollution (The New York Times 8/4)