The History Behind Oscoda’s Water Contamination

Understanding a complex issue like the Oscoda groundwater contamination takes time, and as it turns out, a history lesson doesn’t hurt.

Two weeks ago, a public meeting was held to share progress on Oscoda’s water contamination issue made by local, state and federal agencies. Bob Delaney, Michigan’s Environmental Quality Specialist explained that while people have a right to be concerned about the contaminants, understanding the history behind the Air Force’s decision to use those chemicals is essential to getting a broader understanding of the topic.

“In 1967 the U.S. Air Force Wurtsmith was under aircraft carrier and the planes and fuel caught on fire, and they couldn’t put it out with protein foams. It just kept burning and blowing up. In the end 134 sailors died, 161 sailors were injured, and a half billion dollars worth of damage was done,” reported Delaney.

The Navy realized right away they couldn’t stomach those kind of losses, so in an attempt to protect their men and future flights, they decided to find something that could extinguish fires much more efficiently. They worked with 3M, and they came up with a fire fighting foam called A Triple F that would put out flames in one minute.

“Say this plane goes down, and it’s burning. You have three minutes before the fire penetrates the hull of that airplane. So three minutes until everyone’s dead in that plane. They figured it takes two minutes to drive out to the plane and set up, and one minute to get that fire out. This stuff is the only stuff that’ll do it,” he says of A Triple F.

Not only does A Triple F put out fires faster than any other method, its also safer for firefighters who are on site putting out the flame. Although the chemical has put the groundwater in Oscoda above the health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion, its important to know the necessity of this chemical to the defense community, and public safety. Tune into Insights this weekend to get the full story.