By Steve Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal
Last spring, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warned Truax Air National Guard base in Madison it could face enforcement action if it didn’t move swiftly to clean up toxic chemicals that were showing up in municipal drinking water.
But Truax personnel never responded to letters spelling out statutory requirements for a prompt and thorough cleanup, and by the end of May all the demands were wiped away by a DNR promise to “work cooperatively with Air National Guard staff to develop an agreeable project timeline for addressing the known contaminant release.”
Nearly nine months later there is still no timetable for Truax to take the first steps toward a cleanup by mapping each source of contamination and the spread of pollutants through groundwater that is the city’s source of drinking water.
Air National Guard spokesmen didn’t respond to repeated questions about when work would begin at Truax. A U.S. Air Force spokeswoman said the pace of cleanups is dictated by budget constraints.
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