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EPA Order: Begin Cleanup on Remaining Stretch of Fox River

Release Date: 11/14/2007
Contact Information: (EPA) Mick Hans, 312-353-5050, [email protected] (EPA) Susan Pastor, 312-353-1325, [email protected] (WDNR) Greg Swanson, 608-264-6024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 07-OPA218

CHICAGO (Nov. 14, 2007) -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has ordered a group of companies responsible for PCB-contaminated sediment in Wisconsin's Lower Fox River to meet a pair of deadlines geared to accelerating an estimated $390 million cleanup.

The unilateral administrative order is focused on Operable Units 2 through 5 of the proposed Superfund National Priorities List site, the stretch of the river from Appleton to the mouth of Green Bay. EPA is taking this action in consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (Little Lake Butte des Morts is Operable Unit 1. Cleanup work began at the lake in 2004 and is expected to continue into 2009.)

The order requires action by the responsible companies in two phases. The first phase begins in December 2007. It requires the companies to perform preparation work for the cleanup to follow. This work includes procurement of equipment, establishment of staging facilities, landfill disposal arrangements, appropriate site surveys and property access agreements.

The second phase includes dredging and in-river capping activities beginning in August 2009. By then, the responsible companies are expected to have completed all of the prep work specified in the first
phase. Details of this work were outlined in the 2007 cleanup record of decision amendment.

More information on the Fox River cleanup effort is at https://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/foxriver.