Contributed by Bruck Clift
The White Alice sites were established in the late 1950s in Alaska by the Air Force for communication with early warning systems during the Cold war. They were operational until the late 1970’s, about the time my parents moved to Alaska. However, many were not demolished, dismantled or cleaned up in any way until the 1990s or later, potentially affecting the health of the local populations. This is about the White Alice site in Aniak Alaska, where I’m from.
The Division of Spill Prevention and Response lists the site as Aniak White Alice Communications Site or Aniak WACS. The address listed may be surprising as it is the Aniak Middle School. As the WACS, it was operational from 1955 until 1979. The contaminants still of concern are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and petroleum products. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) and the Air Force did a cleanup of the PCBs from 1979-1981. The land became property of the State of Alaska at this time. The site would then be used by the Kuspuk School district to house teachers and students, to conduct official business and have parties. I remember an annual thanksgiving event for the school district staff and their families that was always held there. It was the vocational education (Voc-Ed) center for the high school and then became the middle school. My entire generation went to school there. Many of us lived near there and played there. The housing project and Teachers’ Road were within a mile of the property. In 1994, ADEC became aware of the possibility of persistent contamination. In 1996 and 1997, high levels of PCBs were documented to persist in the soil surrounding the middle school. The Corps of Engineers cleaned the inside of the building and covered the contaminated soil in 1998. There are expected to be persistent contaminants to this day.
The health effects of PCBs seem to have a latency period. They persist in soils and on surfaces and can travel far distances depending on molecular mass so exposure can take place over long periods of time. They can be carried in bodies of water and on the breeze. They also bioaccumulate and persist for many months to years in tissues (fat) where they are bioactive and liver toxic. PCBs can disrupt genes; the endocrine, immune and nervous systems. They have been labeled probable carcinogens by the Environmental Protection Agency as have they been implicated in hormonal, neurologic, skin and gastrointestinal cancers in humans. They may also cause developmental or neurocognitive effects in the offspring of those exposed. Exposure is often through direct contact, inhalation, or consumption of water or meat in which it was bioaccumulated (fish). PCBs can be found in breast milk.
PCBs may affect steroidogenesis by the adrenocortex and lead to endocrine tumors, diabetes, or thyroid dysfunction. This is of interest to me as my older brother has a rare cancer-adrenocortical carcinoma. He also developed type 2 diabetes at a fairly young age. He lived at the Aniak Voc-Ed center as a fetus/infant, was born in 1980 after my parents moved to Aniak in 1979. They drank the water and used the facilities of the building, unaware it was contaminated. The family moved after several months, but our property was not a mile away when I was born. We played around the then Voc-Ed center as children since there were concrete blocks and other industrial leftovers that were fun for climbing and military artifacts to find. There were definitely old rusty oil drums. It didn’t bother us as kids. We picked berries there and played on the nearby playground. We wandered in the woods behind our house and adjacent to the Voc-Ed daily in the summers. In the spring, Aniak would flood most years- carrying debris from place to place to settle for the next year. It is expected that everybody in Aniak was exposed to the contamination. My concern is that my brother and others from my community may have been adversely affected by the White Alice contamination, even suffering life threatening and life changing illnesses due to exposure during their formative years. The site is still listed as contaminated by the Division of Spill Prevention and Response. It was a devastating spill, with insufficient cleanup in one of the purest parts of the planet, with possible ramifications for years to come. I am seeking and collecting stories from fellow Aniakers who think they may have been affected by the contamination to further our understanding of potential health outcomes from PCB exposure. Contact Brück Clift, MD at PO Box 2646 Palmer, AK 99645 or call 907-746-6686