Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base is the home base of the
West Virginia Air National Guard 167th Airlift Wing located at the
Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport
Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport , also known as Shepherd Field, is a civilian-owned, public use airport located four nautical miles (5 mi, 7 km) south of the central business district of Martinsburg, a city in Berkeley C ...
, 4 miles south of
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 18,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making Martinsburg the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia a ...
.
Environmental issues
the U.S. Air Force has been investigating whether industrial chemicals have seeped from the 167th Airlift Wing base into the groundwater.
In August 2014, the Air Force had found 10 areas where
aqueous film forming foam
Firefighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, thus achieving suppression of the combustion. Firefighting foam was invented by the Moldovan engineer a ...
may have entered the soil including "a former fire-training area, three hangars, two buildings, a fire-truck testing area, two storage areas and a wastewater-treatment area".
The military seeks to determine if the compounds are present, and if they seeped into the groundwater.
The Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport is in the Big Springs wellhead-protection area for the city's water supply.
See also
West Virginia National Guard
The West Virginia National Guard is a part of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety. It comprises the West Virginia Army National Guard and the West Virginia Air National Guard. Unlike some states, West Virginia does ...
References
{{AFHRA
Installations of the United States Air National Guard
Martinsburg, West Virginia
West Virginia Air National Guard
Military installations in West Virginia