Distant Early Warning LineThe Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) was a system of radar stations in the Canadian high arctic, with additional stations along the Alaskan islands and in Greenland. It was set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers and missiles during the Cold War, a task for which it quickly became outdated with the move to ICBMs as the main delivery system for nuclear weapons. The DEW Line was the northernmost and most capable of three radar lines in Canada; the joint Canada/US Pinetree Line ran from Labrador to Vancouver, and the Mid-Canada Line ran somewhat north of this. Improvements in Soviet technology made these two lines inadequate and on February 15, 1954 the Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build a line of radar stations in the high arctic. The line would run roughly along the 69th parallel, 320 kilometres north of the arctic circle. The Americans agreed to pay for the line using Canadian labour. The massive construction project employed over 25,000 people. The line consisted of sixty-three stations stretching from Alaska to Baffin Island, covering almost 10,000 km. The project was finished in 1957 and was considered an engineering marvel. The next year the line became a cornerstone of the new NORAD organization of joint continental air defence. There were three types of stations. Small unmanned ones were only checked by aircrews every few months during the summer. Intermediate stations had three employees: a chief, a chef, and a mechanic who spent many months with only each others company. The larger stations had a variable number of employees and were well set up with libraries, movie projectors, and other distractions. Quite quickly after its completion the line lost much of its purpose. It was useless against ICBMs and submarine launched attacks. A number of stations were shut, but the bulk were retained to monitor potential Soviet air activities and to assert Canada's sovereignty in the arctic. In 1987 the DEW Line was merged with other stations into the North Warning System, automation was increased, and a number of additional stations were closed. In 1990, with the end of the Cold War and Collapse of the Soviet Union, the Americans withdrew all their personnel and turned full operation over to Canada. Controversy developed between the United States and Canada over the cleanup of the DEW Line sites, however. The stations had produced large amounts of waste that had been abandoned in the high arctic. Especially damaging were the large quantities of PCBss. The US insisted that it was Canada's responsibility to pay the hundred of millions in dollars of necessary cleanup, the Canadian government disagreed. In 1996 an agreement was reached that saw the Americans contribute $100 million to the estimated $300 million cleanup effort. \nExternal Links:
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