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The DNR and EPA will soon propose to amend and severely weaken our hard-fought Fox River PCB and mercury cleanup plan to allow polluters to leave several permanent hazardous waste dump sites in the river, capping the toxins only with sand, rock and in some areas geotextile fabric. This method has never been successfully demonstrated in a large flowing river like ours, especially over many centuries of erosion and disturbance. In fact, several recent attempts at other sites have failed. Capping is a cheap, short-term fix with a high risk of failure and recontamination in the long term, yet the polluters hope to be relieved of all future liability after the capping is complete.
 

Heads Up! The EPA and DNR have released the enormous "Basis of Design Report" and it is available online at the DNR website.  In early- to mid-August 2006, the EPA and DNR expect to announce a proposed final  Fox River Cleanup Plan, using the Basis  of Design Report as justification.  It will require major amendments to the 2003 "Record of Decision," which has already been weakened badly. A 45-60 day public comment period is expected to start in August, with a formal PUBLIC HEARING planned for late August or September.

To learn more about this issue, please review this website, and return often for the latest news: 

http://www.foxriverwatch.com

http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/foxriver/index.html
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/wm/foxriver/

[CAUTION: There is a related issue discussed on these websites involving a dispute over landfilling of a high concentration PCB hotspot. While Clean Water Action Council supports landfilling for the bulk of the lower concentration sediments, we oppose this particular landfill proposal in favor of detoxification technologies (not incineration/Minergy) to break the concentrated toxins down.  Please visit the technologies page on Fox River Watch.]

Background

The agencies are proposing a final cleanup plan which represents a major modification or amendment to the cleanup "Record of Decision" (ROD) we fought so hard for back in 2002 and 2003. The original ROD had called primarily for dredging and landfilling of all sediments greater than 1 ppm PCBs, at a total cost of $400 million dollars (including monitoring). Dredging would have been conducted using a vacuum-style hydraulic dredge to produce only minimal leakage.

Two of the planned 7 years of upstream cleanup dredging and landfilling have already occurred at the upper end of the river (at Little Lake Butte des Morts, which is a flowage of the Fox River), showing that the work can be done safely and effectively, but the DNR now tells us that the dredging there will end after next summer and be replaced with simple sand capping of the remaining PCB contaminated sediments. Most of the downstream dredging (10 years worth) could be similarly replaced with capping in the new plan. More than 90% of the total river PCBs are in the downstream section.

Clean Water Action Council has been fighting for this cleanup for more than 20 years, but WE REALLY NEED STATEWIDE ATTENTION ON THIS ISSUE! We're fighting several powerful corporations who have lobbied legislators and agencies intensively for many years. Only focused statewide citizen and organizational involvement can turn this around!

The Lower Fox River, which flows for 39 miles from Lake Winnebago north to Green Bay, is host to the largest concentration of paper mills in the world and several major urban areas. It's also a Superfund Megasite due to extensive contamination with a host of toxic chemicals, especially PCBs and mercury. It's one of the largest river cleanups in the U.S. and could set a disastrous precedent for other sites around the country.

(Technically, the Fox River is only "nominated" for Superfund, but the cleanup effort is a state/federal collaboration with the state taking the lead following the Superfund process and using some Superfund monies. It is a Superfund site in everything but name.)

PCBs are toxic oils which were used in the ink on the back of carbonless copy paper. When two companies (NCR and AP) made the paper, and five others recycled it, they dumped PCB chemical wastes into the Fox River and Green Bay, some as recently as the early 1990s. The companies were NCR Corporation, Appleton Papers (Arjo Wiggins Appleton), Georgia Pacific (formerly Fort James Corporation, now owned by Koch Industries), P.H. Glatfelter (formerly Bergstrom Paper), Wisconsin Tissue Mills (owned by Chesapeake Corporation), Sonoco (formerly U.S. Paper Mills Corporation), and Riverside Paper.

None of these companies are headquartered in Wisconsin, and several no longer operate mills here, but together they have enormous assets and are well-able to afford a proper cleanup of the Fox River and Green Bay system.

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