gÜnther schneider himself used to work for the american forces and saw soldiers performing fire-fightingrills for ailane crashes. gÜnther: there was a hole in the ground. th poured fuel from the planes into that hol and then set it alight. and when it was burning fiercely with black fumes, the fire fighters put out the fire using foam extinguishing agents, which we now have in our groundwater. that foam contained fluorosurfactants, a chemical that is oilandater-repelnt, anresistanto heat. it's an fective mes of fiting jet-fl fires, but is prtically non-biodegradable. after decades of using the agent, the americans banned it in 2011, albeit too late to protect the area's water. >> this fairytale pond is highly contaminated via the surface water, due to pollution straight from the airbase. it's less than 50 meters away. what used to be a paradise is now a chemical cesspit. >> a cesspit that nobody seems willing to take responsibility for an interview were ignored. on the german side, the oples to talk to are at the federal real estate agency. but they refused to talk on camera, instead sen