See the USA's rusty and toxic legacy in Greenland

Narsarsuaq was the largest American air base in Greenland during World War II. Starting in 1942, thousands of planes stopped there to refuel on their way to the war in Europe.

The Americans left Narsarsuaq in 1958 without cleaning up after themselves.

Wreckage, oil drums, batteries, cables, machinery, and much more lie abandoned across an area of several hectares near the fjord, where icebergs drift by. Locals say the waste is buried in multiple layers.

Asbestos sheets from the old U.S. military hospital are scattered throughout the area. Danish researchers have previously warned both Danish and Greenlandic authorities about the asbestos. But the asbestos is still there.

»Bulldozers have spread rocks and gravel over buried scrap metal — wires and other metal sticking out of the ground«, says Mikkel Myrup, area manager at the National Museum of Greenland.

Following pressure from Greenland, the Danish government decided in 2018 to launch a cleanup at several of the U.S. bases in Greenland. Very few bases have been cleaned up. Narsarsuaq is not part of the Danish cleanup plans.

The base is one of the military installations that Politiken has visited.

The station was established in 1942 as a weather and radio station for aircraft landing in Narsarsuaq.

Approximately 50 men were stationed there in 1944.

The Americans left the station in 1958. Later, the Greenlandic telecommunications company Tusass set up an unmanned radio beacon on the island.

Rusty oil drums, old construction materials, shipwreck debris, pipes, lead plates from batteries, and metal scraps from the American presence are scattered across a large area near the fjord. Old oil tanks have been left on the mountain. Several landfills—or »dumps«, as they are called—containing rusty oil drums are scattered throughout the landscape.

On Simiutaq, construction materials alone account for approximately 2,400 metric tons of either hazardous or contaminated waste and approximately 2,000 metric tons of non-contaminated waste.

Samples have revealed »severe oil contamination« involving so-called free-phase oil, meaning that the oil can move through the terrain. The oil contamination has caused a »significant impact on the marine area«, as »high levels of oil have been found in mussels and sediment«, according to an environmental study conducted by the engineering firm Niras.

Contamination with the environmental toxin PCB and high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead have also been detected.

Simiutaq is one of the bases that Politiken has visited.

It remains unclear whether Denmark intends to pay for the cleanup.

The Marraq air base, located approximately 90 km south of Nuuk, was established during World War II with a crew of about 60 people. The base was used as an emergency landing strip and a weather station. It was also named Teague Airfield after an American soldier who made an emergency landing there.

When the Americans left the site in 1948, they left behind several thousand oil drums, three diesel generators, wooden masts, remnants of radio equipment, a steel barge, a tracked vehicle, and a pickup truck. In some places, the scrap metal had been buried one and a half meters deep in the ground.

An environmental survey conducted by Carl Bro showed that corroded oil drums had »caused severe diesel fuel contamination at various locations on the site«. Near the drums, »the vegetation had disappeared«.

»A conservative estimate of the total amount of diesel fuel that has contaminated the site is approximately 120,000 liters of diesel fuel or more«.

The contamination was »so severe that a strong odor of oil could still be detected at the site«, even though the contamination had occurred 40–50 years earlier.

In addition, asbestos and PCBs were found in the soil. Water samples from the nearby fjord contained traces of mercury.

»The substances detected in soil and water samples may pose a risk to life in the lake and to marine life near the coast, including, in particular, any mussels in the fjord along the beach«, the report stated.

Denmark began cleanup of the base in 2019, but the site has not yet been fully cleaned up.

In 1942, Bluie West 5 was established as a weather station under the U.S. Air Force on the fjord near Greenland’s fifth-largest city, Aasiaat.

The area has been in use both before and after the Americans arrived at the site, but environmental surveys have found clear signs of American debris.

Several old buildings and a stockpile of old, rusty oil drums date back to the American era.

More than 5 metric tons of either hazardous or contaminated waste from the U.S. presence have been found at the base. At the same time, soil contamination with the heavy metals lead and cadmium has been detected in some areas.

The Danish authorities are currently investigating who owns the site today.

During World War II, the United States established the Bluie West 6 weather station in the area around Pituffik in northernmost Greenland.

In the early 1950s, a secret construction project of enormous proportions was launched nearby under the code name Project Blue Jay. A fleet of 120 ships carrying approximately 12,000 men and more than 300,000 metric tons of materials set sail from the U.S. East Coast. The base, which was then named Thule Air Base and is known today as Pituffik Space Base, was completed in 1952. The base is the U.S.’s only remaining active base in Greenland today.

For years, the base has produced large amounts of waste. At one point, it came to light that there were at least 50 waste dumps around Pituffik. One of them was located near the nearby village of Dundas.

»There have been enormous amounts of waste that needed to be disposed of. At its peak, the base housed 10,000 men. So it’s not surprising that mountains of waste were produced. I’ve seen it with my own eyes at Dundas«, says Mikkel Myrup, area manager at the National Museum of Greenland.

»In Dundas, the Americans have used the silos from their former anti-aircraft missile battery as a landfill. To this day, they are still filled with waste«, he says.

For many years, extensive contamination with the environmental toxin PCB has also been detected in the marine environment off Pituffik.

Since Pituffik is still an active U.S. base, it is not on the list of bases that Denmark plans to clean up.

Bluie West 7 was established as a U.S. base in 1943 near the cryolite mining town of Ivigtut on Arsuk Fjord. Adjacent to it, the U.S. Navy 26 base was constructed; Denmark took over this base from 1951 to 2012, during which time it was renamed Grønnedal and served as a Danish naval station.

Extensive oil and groundwater contamination has been detected in Grønnedal. The contamination was washed into the nearby fjord.

Over the years, the waste has been placed in landfills – so-called dumps – where large quantities of waste have been deposited.

In the northern dump, which was established by the Americans, both vehicles and hazardous waste were disposed of. The Danish Armed Forces have estimated that up to 20,000 cubic meters of waste were deposited in the northern dump alone.

Documents from the National Audit Office show that diving surveys conducted in 2012 revealed that waste, a tanker truck, a tracked vehicle, and a crane were also found in the fjord off the dump.

The cleanup of Grønnedal was originally estimated to cost DKK 33 million. Subsequently, the negotiating parties estimated that the cleanup is expected to cost DKK 100–200 million.

The Kangerlussuaq base was established in 1941 as a stopover station for American bombing raids in Europe during World War II. During the Cold War, the base continued to serve a network of radar stations in Greenland.

Starting in the 1950s, Kangerlussuaq—known in Danish as Søndre Strømfjord—became the primary civilian airport in Greenland. From 1954 to 1965, SAS used the airport for stopovers on the Copenhagen–Los Angeles route. The U.S. did not leave the base until 1992.

Among other things, the Americans left behind dumps of old oil drums and explosive ammunition. Area Manager Mikkel Myrup from the National Museum of Greenland explains that buildings from the American part of the base, as well as scrap metal, remain to this day.

»The piles of oil drums have been removed in Kangerlussuaq, which is a settlement where people live, so items have been removed on an ongoing basis«, he says.

This has been done, among other things, by burning open landfills in Kangerlussuaq that contained both American debris and more recent waste. The burning has drawn heavy criticism from several local residents.

In 2018, two Greenlandic politicians wrote a letter to the editor in *Altinget*, in which they stated that the Americans had dumped barrels of diesel fuel into the lakes around Kangerlussuaq to prevent mosquitoes from breeding.

»Those lakes still stink of pollution to this day«, they wrote.

Kangerlussuaq is not part of the Danish cleanup effort.

Weather station on Cruncher Island, which was also used to support flights to the Kangerlussuaq base. The station was built in 1942 and decommissioned as part of the U.S. defense area in 1986.

The Americans have left behind the remains of eight old buildings, an area with generators, a vehicle, pipes, and cables, as well as a dumping site with waste.

An environmental study by the engineering firm Niras shows that 11 metric tons of hazardous or contaminated waste, 1.5 metric tons of old batteries, and 31 metric tons of non-contaminated waste have been left behind.

»High levels of soil contamination with oil and lead« have been detected. High levels of heavy metals cadmium, copper, zinc, and mercury have been detected in one sample.

The Danish and Greenlandic authorities are preparing to clean up the site.

Ikkatteq Air Base on Greenland’s east coast was established during World War II and was in operation from 1942 to 1947 with a crew of up to approximately 600 people. The base was used for stopovers and radio surveillance.

The Americans left behind tens of thousands of oil drums scattered over more than 25,000 square meters, 33 different vehicles, batteries, and approximately 45 buildings, including an old aircraft hangar.

»It’s the most striking site. More than 100,000 drums have been scattered across the landscape, along with vehicles and buildings containing asbestos that have collapsed. The base was abandoned without any form of cleanup«, says area manager Mikkel Myrup from the National Museum of Greenland.

An environmental study by Cowi has revealed widespread oil contamination.

»We could see that waste oil was leaking from many of the barrels. You could tell from the ground that it was contaminated with oil«, says Myrup, who visited the site in 2018.

Both hazardous and contaminated waste has been found. Several samples also revealed the presence of the environmental toxin PCB and heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. It was assessed »to pose a contact risk to animals and humans«.

Ikkatteq was one of the first bases where Denmark initiated a cleanup. The site has still not been fully cleaned up.

A radio and weather station on the east coast of Greenland that was used by the United States during World War II. According to the Narsarsuaq Museum, one officer and 13 other soldiers were stationed at the base during that period.

In the report ’Waste Registration in the Open Country’, the engineering firm Niras assessed the environmental impact of the American debris at Bluie East 3 to be »significant«.

Several old buildings and a drum depot containing up to 100 drums were identified.

In 2022, the Greenlandic municipality of Sermersooq removed scrap metal from the station.

No formal environmental assessment of the area has been conducted.

Camp Century is the largest and most ambitious U.S. military installation ever built on the Greenland ice sheet.

The base was buried beneath the ice and consisted of an extensive tunnel system with a 330-meter long »main road« and more than 20 adjacent tunnels. The base housed about 225 personnel and included living quarters, offices, a workshop, a post office, a movie theater, laboratories, a train track, and, most notably, a nuclear reactor that supplied electricity and heating to the base.

Camp Century later turned out to be part of ’Project Iceworm’. The base was intended to explore the possibility of installing nuclear-powered missiles for launch from beneath the ice.

The base remained in use through 1966. After that, Camp Century was abandoned and slowly sank deeper into the ice. The nuclear reactor was removed in 1964, but an international team of researchers estimated in 2016 that up to 24 million liters of low-level radioactive wastewater, 9,000 metric tons of construction debris, and 200,000 liters of diesel fuel were left behind.

»We have a reasonably good overview of what lies beneath the ice. It’s quite a lot. It includes sewage, oil, fuel, and low-level radioactive cooling water from the nuclear reactor. When you consider how much of the ice sheet is disappearing each year, this could become an issue again at some point«, says area manager Mikkel Myrup from the National Museum of Greenland.

One of the U.S. military research camps in northern Greenland.

Camp Tuto was located at the edge of the ice sheet, just under 25 kilometers southeast of the Pituffik base. Established in 1954. A few years later, 450 personnel were permanently stationed there.

One of the largest projects at Camp Tuto was a 400-meter-long ice tunnel dug beneath the ice; experiments were also conducted to blast a tunnel through permafrost.

It is not known what remains there, nor whether a proper environmental assessment of the area has been conducted.

Since Camp Tuto is still considered part of the active U.S. base area around Pituffik, the station is not on the list of bases that the Danish authorities intend to clean up.

Gamatron was established during World War II as an American radio and weather station and submarine observation post.

It is located in hilly terrain on the scenic island of Qasigissat Nunaat, approximately 20 kilometers from Qaqortoq (formerly Julianehåb).

The station was tasked with providing weather data for the Allies’ strategic planning and guiding ships and aircraft safely toward Narsarsuaq.

The station had a crew of up to approximately 50 people.

The Americans have left behind the remains of 34 buildings, six storage areas containing old oil drums with several hundred empty drums, and six areas with waste. In total, the engineering firm Niras estimates that 175–185 metric tons of waste from Gamatron’s operations have been left behind.

Many of the oil drums are located near the old harbor, where the wreck of a rusted 1942 Chevrolet dump truck can also be found.

Several samples show that the water in a lake in the area »is not suitable for drinking due to contamination from an abandoned waste dump«.

Gamatron is one of the bases that Politiken has visited.

An American radio station on the island of Nipisat, south of Sisimiut on Greenland’s west coast.

The station used the American Loran navigation system, which operates on low-frequency radio waves, and is therefore referred to as a Loran station. The word »Loran« is an abbreviation of »LOng RAnge Navigation«.

Nipisat was built in 1954 and operated until 1975.

A report by the engineering firm Niras documents the presence of several oil and gasoline tanks as well as »three documented cases of oil contamination« on the island.

»Nipisat is something of a disaster. It is an area of great natural value. The former Loran station, with its extensive facilities for personnel and power generation, lies completely devastated after extensive vandalism«, wrote an employee of the then Qeqertarsuaq Municipality in a comment in the report.

The same report estimates that the station contains PCBs, pesticides, mercury, oil, heavy metals, and asbestos.

One of the first so-called Loran stations in Greenland. Located near Nanortalik and established in 1963.

The Angissoq station remained in operation until the end of 1994, when the Loran navigation system – an acronym for LOng RAnge Navigation – was rendered obsolete by positioning via satellite-based signals.

The Niras report ’Waste Registration in the Open Country’ states that there were 23 remnants of old buildings and a power plant.

It is noted in the report that approximately 20 square meters of oil contamination were observed south of a fuel storage facility, and that »dumps are being eroded by the sea«.

It is likely that no actual environmental survey of the site has been conducted.

Not far from the Pituffik base, the U.S. Coast Guard built a Loran navigation station in 1954, which was named Cape Atholl.

The Americans operated it until 1972, and the crew consisted of about 20 men.

A 2022 Niras study identified areas with »severe oil contamination in the soil, the smell of oil, and a risk of free-phase oil«.

Heavy metals equivalent to hazardous waste and levels of the environmental toxin PCB were found in old construction materials. A dump site is located in the coastal cliff, where »all types of waste« have been observed, such as burned trash, batteries, electrical and cable scrap, iron, and other metals.

»You can see that there is waste that has begun to erode into the sea. These are items that people have tried to bury, which are now beginning to surface down on the beach«, says Mikkel Myrup, who has visited the site.

It is estimated that wild animals are at risk of coming into contact with the contamination.

»It cannot be ruled out that walruses coming ashore on the beach could come into contact with contaminated soil or waste«, the study states.

The Danish and Greenlandic authorities are preparing a cleanup of the site, which is expected to take place over the next few years.

Qutdleq was a Loran station built on an island of the same name in southeastern Greenland. The station was established in 1960 and closed in 1978.

The word »Loran« is an abbreviation for »LOng RAnge Navigation«, a navigation system developed by the United States at the beginning of World War II.

According to The Estate Command (ETK), a branch of the Danish Armed Forces, there are several masts, buildings, and tanks at the site.

A photo from 2018 shows several abandoned structures, including at least three large storage tanks as well as numerous buildings and barracks in various stages of disrepair.

Qutdleq has not yet undergone an environmental assessment. A historical account of the site must first be prepared.

An American Loran navigation station, which was built in 1960 and closed in 1977.

According to The Estate Command, there are several masts, buildings, and tanks at the site.

A photo from 1996 shows a number of building ruins and dilapidated barracks that have not been cleared away.

Orssuiagssuaq has not yet been subject to an environmental assessment. A historical report on the site must first be prepared.

A radio beacon located on the highest point of Sabine Island.

The beacon was established in 1959 as an unmanned station with a transmitter and a mast and was in operation for only a few years.

The station is in a protected bird sanctuary.

Just over 20 meters from the antenna building lies a battery dump containing approximately 35 large, discarded batteries. Most of them have exposed lead cores.

»It is assessed that there is a risk that the battery dump may have caused heavy metal contamination on Sabine Island«, according to a memo from The Estate Command.

No environmental assessment of the station will be conducte as it is located in a bird sanctuary.

In the 1950s, the United States established four early-warning stations designed to alert the U.S. to Russian bombers that could potentially reach the U.S. by flying over the North Pole.

The four stations across Greenland were part of the so-called Distant Early Warning (DEW) system, which stretched from Alaska through Canada and Greenland.

The four Greenlandic stations were named DYE-1 through -4, numbered from west to east and named after Cape Dyer Station on Baffin Island, which served as the main station for the Greenlandic DYE stations.

DYE-1, which consisted of two rotating antennas placed back-to-back in a large radar dome, was located at the summit of the 1,450-meter-high Qaqatoqaq mountain south of Sisimiut.

DYE-1 was decommissioned in 1988.

The site has reportedly been cleaned up by the Greenlandic Self-Government. Storage depots and waste dumps have presumably been buried.

DYE-2 and -3 were located on the Greenland ice sheet.

The stations were built on large steel legs anchored in the ice sheet. DYE-1 and -2 were staffed by 10–20 people—both Americans and Danes—who monitored radar screens 24 hours a day and kept the stations running. Large fuel tanks were buried in the ice sheet.

Supplies to the stations were delivered by American C-130 Hercules aircraft fitted with skis.

In 1972, a C-130D crash landed near DYE-3. The aircraft was a total loss, so the fuselage was stripped of usable equipment, and the fuselage and wings were buried in the ice sheet.

DYE-2 was abandoned in a great hurry, which is why it remains filled with old equipment to this day. Both stations were left behind in the expectation that they would eventually be swallowed up by the ice sheet.

As some of the few remaining former U.S. military installations in Greenland, the United States has contributed funds for the cleanup of DYE-2 and DYE-3.

DYE-4 was built on the summit of a mountain near Kulusuk, southeast of Tasiilaq in East Greenland, where the Americans had previously established a weather station called Cape Dan.

DYE-4 is the last in the series of U.S. DEW stations in Greenland.

The station had two rotating antennas positioned back-to-back in a radar dome just under 25 meters in diameter, which scanned the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere, respectively.

DYE-4 was shut down in 1991.

The station was cleared in 1994 by the Greenlandic Self-Government. The station was dismantled and the materials buried in local landfills, so that today only a few foundations remain visible.

The DYE stations have not been subject to environmental assessments.

Weather station and radio station built around 1943.

According to the report ’Waste Mapping in Open Country’ prepared by Niras, a storage tank and several building foundations were abandoned at the site.

The environmental impact is assessed as »significant«, as it is estimated that there are traces of mercury, oil, heavy metals, and asbestos at the site.

A historical survey of the site was initiated this year, but no actual environmental survey of Cape Cort Adelaer has yet been conducted.

Weather station built in 1943 and closed around 1948.

Everything was left exactly as it was, according to the Niras report ’Waste Mapping in the Open Countryside’.

The report also notes the presence of chemicals, »large quantities of waste, old clothing, medication residues, and broken glass«, which are scattered throughout the area.

The environmental impact is assessed as »significant«, as it is estimated that mercury, oil, heavy metals, and asbestos are present at the site.

A historical investigation was initiated earlier this year. However, no actual environmental survey of the site has yet been conducted.

A small radio and rescue station built around 1943.

In the report ’Waste Mapping of the Open Countryside’, the engineering firm Niras assesses the environmental impact of the area as »significant«.

The report estimates that oil residues, mercury, heavy metals, and asbestos are present at the station.

A historical study has been commissioned this year to shed light on the site’s history before deciding on next steps.

The site has not yet undergone an environmental assessment.

An artillery position established in 1941 to protect the large U.S. base in Narsarsuaq a few kilometers away, against enemy vessels. Two 155 mm guns were positioned on a small headland.

Artillery Point was decommissioned after the war in 1946.

Twenty former buildings or building components and a small landfill site containing primarily glass have been recorded.

It is estimated that 17 metric tons of waste was left behind from the U.S. operation of the artillery position, of which only a small portion was contaminated.

At the same time, oil contamination and minor contamination with heavy metals—mostly lead and cadmium—have been found.

The National Museum of Greenland recommends that Artillery Point remain undisturbed.

A radio station for the large Narsarsuaq base, built in 1942.

The station was staffed by 10–20 men. It had a cableway across the river to Narsarsuaq. The station closed at the same time as the Narsarsuaq base in 1958.

Camp Corbett contained three emergency power plants, more than 200 wooden utility poles, oil tanks, and several dumps, as well as an area with buried waste. Among these were a buried tank and a dump containing cans.

A total of at least 377 metric tons of waste has been found at Camp Corbett—of which 314 metric tons is either hazardous or contaminated waste.

The waste has been found to contain the environmental toxin PCB, heavy metals, tar-like substances, and asbestos.

For years, the site has been home to grazing sheep, as a local sheep farmer has been operating in the area.

The cleanup of the base was initiated a few years ago by the Danish and Greenlandic authorities. It is no easy task. According to a steering committee report from December 2024, to which Politiken has gained access, waste was initially removed in 47 containers. That was only the first phase of the cleanup.

»There are some large foundations that extend several meters into the ground—essentially concrete blocks measuring 100 cubic meters. Removing them will require major measures, including blasting. It is estimated that a relatively heavy-handed approach to the area will be necessary to remove the materials«, stated The Estate Command.