About a dozen people gather on a street corner in Oscoda. They’re holding signs and calling on the Air Force to take responsibility for PFAS contamination in the community.
The local group Need Our Water – or NOW - organized the rally to demand four additional clean-up measures on the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. These measures would target hotspots of contamination, but they were rejected by the Air Force last year.
The group now hopes to leverage public and congressional support to urge the Air Force to implement the measures.
It took a similar effort a couple of years ago to spur two existing “stop-gap” measures on the base, but residents say those actions are not enough.
“What do they say, ‘a squeaky wheel gets the oil?’ Well, we’re really squeaking, and we’re not going to stop,” said Kelly Brown is an Oscoda resident.
Brown took the workday off to join the protest. She said it’s the Air Force’s job to take accountability for their mess, but public outrage is the only way to actually get things done.
“Isn’t that absurd - that you have to beg someone by standing on a corner trying to get publicity to have them spend our tax dollars on a mess they left?" Brown said. "They made the mess with our tax dollars, we’re asking them to clean it up, and they’re refusing.”
In addition to the rally, NOW sent a letter to members of Michigan's federal congressional delegation, and state and local officials detailing the four contaminated hotspots.
Cathy Wusterbarth is the co-leader of NOW. She said the state agrees with NOW and has sent their own letter to the Air Force in support of additional interim clean-up measures.
“Despite the overwhelming evidence that these locations are a threat to the community’s health, the Air Force is refusing to take action to clean them up," Wusterbarth said. "This is unacceptable.”
NOW members said working directly with the Air Force has been unproductive – and as their protest signs say: “all talk, no action.”
The rally is followed by the quarterly Restoration Advisory Board meeting, where Air Force officials and contractors share updates on the base’s clean-up status.
The meeting spans three and a half hours of technical presentations, questions from the community board members, and public comment.
Community requests for additional investigation and sampling, clean-up considerations, compensation, and health assessments keep piling up. These requests and questions are answered with promises of follow-up.
Here’s an exchange between RAB co-chairs Mark Henry and Air Force representative Steve Willis:
Henry: “Will you be sampling the individual extraction wells for PFAS?”
Willis: “We can look into that. Our plan was to do the system influent and effluent, but we can look at individual ones."
Henry: "I think it might be useful for future discussions..."
In addition to the RAB meetings, the Air Force has been increasing engagement with the community. But Oscoda homeowner Tony Spaniola said he’s noticed a “lack of perspective” from the Air Force about the public health and social impacts of delaying clean-up.
“The sense of urgency to deal with the problems that our facing our community is wholly lacking in these discussions," Spaniola said. "There are IRAs (Interim Remedial Actions) that need to be performed. We need to stop the bleeding from the base into our community.”
The Air Force is currently leading three remedial investigations at Wurtsmith for different contaminants.
But no long-term clean-up plan for Oscoda has been announced – and it’s clear that for residents, these delays and fruitless discussions are unacceptable.
