Cape Field at Fort Glenn. (Credit: Yvonne Meyer/National Park Service)

In its heyday, Fort Glenn on Umnak Island was a huge part of the military's defense during World War II. It helped protect Dutch Harbor's naval base from attacks.

But it's been almost seventy years since the airfield was used. And there are still plenty of traces of the war left behind, according to Valerie Palmer. She's a project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers.

"Through our investigation of that area, we have found that potentially there are still munitions on that site that have not exploded, and so they present an explosive hazard," Palmer says.

That's why Palmer and several engineers are holding open meetings with the public this week in Anchorage and tonight, in Unalaska. They’re trying to get opinions on how to address leftover munitions and potential pollution at Fort Glenn.

This isn't the first time the Corps has asked Unalaskans for their input. The engineers visited town in 2011, when they kicked off a major survey of the abandoned fort.

Now that they know what’s there, Palmer says the Corps is moving to the next step and writing up a “decision plan.”

"It sets the guideline for what we will accomplish at the project and what that means," Palmer says. "Does it mean we're going to go remove any munitions we find? Does it mean maybe we just do land use controls -- maybe we just do a mix of those things."

The engineers won't settle on a course of action until they get to talk to local stakeholders, along with the state, federal, and Alaska Native groups that split ownership of Fort Glenn.

The Army Corps will host their public meeting in the conference room at the Unalaska library tonight at 6:30 p.m. After that, the Corps will take public comments on Fort Glenn through June 2.