A brief search reveals that the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base is a Superfund site - pretty bad groundwater contamination via leaking underground storage tanks. Do a search for the air force base name along with any of the terms: "Superfund”, ”CERCLA”, "FUSRAP", "USACE", etc. to get an idea of how fucked the groundwater there is. I'm not going to go out on a limb and state that what I'm suggesting is gospel, but most of it makes sense:
A brief review suggests the cleanup of this site is in its infancy - looks like there are a few reports completed - I didn't read them. However the contaminants in the groundwater are perfluoro organic chemicals. A typical remediation scheme for volatile organic compound contamination in ground water is air striping - basically you pump the groundwater out and then run it over a series of vertical weirs to enable evaporation of the chemical into the air (imagine a bunch of water cooled roof top heat exchangers like they use for AC systems on the roofs of skyscrapers). This is a pretty simple and time proven technique that is effective and economical. As long as the chemical isn't too nasty.
When the EPA identifies and gets a site on the Superfund list and preliminary studies outlining remedial measures to be incorporated are identified, a lead agency is assigned (EPA typically retains a figurehead position and remains a central repository for info). I've seen the Corps of Engineers (USACE), Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC), Bureau of Mines and occasionally the EPA itself do this. Kind of depends on the nature of the work to be performed. If the proposed remediation is a simple process like I outlined, it isn't to far a stretch to imagine FEMA being put in this role - particularly if .gov already had possession/ownership of a boatload of the requisite equipment. FEMA has done lots of massive mobilizations in the past following natural disasters, so this isn't too far a stretch. That said I am not personally acquainted with any such remediation projects where FEMA was put in charge, but I retired over 8 years ago so...
The base isn't too far from Canada. Maybe it's a (not so) secret staging area for Biden's planned invasion and exile of Turdeau...
You beat me to it. I was starting to look up superfund sites. From what I remember about Brio in Houston (another superfund site) was there was some pretty exhaustive disclosure required to the citizenry so the city and county can get funds from the Federal gov to it cleaned up.