Sioux City, corps at odds over contamination cleanup at airport

[unhappycamper]

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/sioux-city-corps-at-odds-over-contamination-cleanup-at-airport/article_f8f6004c-77df-5cd6-afd3-7c0578bd9e00.html



Sioux Gateway Airport Director Curt Miller shows monitoring wells at the airport on Monday. City leaders continue to believe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should pay part of the $1.47 million cost to clean up soil and water contamination at the facility. Some may date to when the airport was a World War II military base.

Sioux City, corps at odds over contamination cleanup at airport
8 hours ago • NICK HYTREK

SIOUX CITY | During World War II, bombers zoomed through the skies of Siouxland as young pilots and their crews trained to go to war at the air base on the south side of Sioux City.

Once the war was over, the bombers left, and much of the air base property eventually became Sioux Gateway Airport. Few structures from those days remain, but the long runways are still there, as are memories of Sioux City's role in the long-ago war effort.

City leaders believe that era left behind more than just memories. Soil and groundwater contamination caused by fuel spills was discovered at the airport in the early 1990s, leading to a dispute still to be resolved over who should be responsible for the $1.47 million that cleaning up the pollution is expected to cost.

The city believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should pay part of the cost.