The Environmental Protection Agency has fined the Army nearly $60,000 for failing to notify the agency of a munitions dump on Fort Wainwright.
The base near Fairbanks has been an EPA superfund site since 1990. According to an EPA statement Tuesday, the Army discovered an old munitions and explosives dump at the fort’s small arms firing range in June 2013, with lead and other heavy metals eroding into the Tanana River.
The Army was supposed to notify the EPA within 15 days. But the EPA says it only learned of the dump more than a year later, in a memo from an Army contractor. A partial cleanup this year produced more than 160 tons of material, including explosives and unfired rounds.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
