The federal government is paying for a multimillion dollar cleanup of a former U.S. air force base in northern B.C.

Fort Nelson Airport

The contaminated land is now the site of Fort Nelson's airport, but during the Second World War the landing strip was an air base used by thousands of planes en route to Russia as part of the Northwest Air Staging Route.

When the U.S. forces pulled out at the end of the war they left behind a legacy of contamination, including petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metals from old fuel storage tanks, gas stations and firefighting training.

The airport is now owned and run by the Northern Rockies Regional District.

But Transport Canada spokeswoman Jillian Glover said the federal government is paying for the $8-million cleanup, which is expected to take until 2015.

"The U.S. and Canada negotiated an agreement in 1944 where we agreed to buy the Fort Nelson airport and we assumed the responsibility for the condition. We agreed to address the contaminated sites at the airport," said Glover.

The land was used to house Canadian families and a school in the 1950s and 1960s. Glover said Transport Canada doesn't believe there are any "immediate health impacts."

But Kandys Stanek, who used to live in the homes and attended the school on the site as a child, said he still has concerns.

"I actually grew up there....There's a lot of speculation around what the U.S. air force may have left behind.… Looks like a very large reclamation and it does cause me a little bit of concern," Stanek said.