wEPA

United States
Environmental Protection
Agency

Informational open houses

EPA is holding two open house
sessions Aug. 22 so you can learn
more about activities under way
on the Kalamazoo River cleanup.
Both will be at the Comfort Inn,
622 Allegan St., Plainwell, Mich.
People can attend either identical
session from 1:30-3 p.m. or
6:30-8 p.m. No formal presentations
are planned. EPA representatives
and other officials will be available
to meet one-on-one with the public
to discuss site activities. If special
accommodations are needed, contact
EPA Community Involvement
Coordinator Don de Blasio
at 800-621-8431 Ext. 64360
(weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), or
deblasio.don@epa.gov by Aug. 15.

Contact EPA

For more information, or if you have
comments about the Kalamazoo
River cleanup, you may contact these
EPA representatives:

Don de Blasio

Community Involvement Coordinator
312-886-4360 or 800-621-8431,
weekdays 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
deblasio. don@epa.gov

James Saric

Remedial Project Manager
312-886-0992 or 800-621-8431,
weekdays 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
saric.james@epa.gov

Samuel Borries

On-Scene Coordinator
312-353-8360 or 800-621-8431,
weekdays 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
borries.samuel@epa.gov

Plainwell PCB Cleanup
Proceeding on Schedule

Allied Paper/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site

Kalamazoo, Michigan	August 2007

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 and state partner Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality continue to oversee this summer's
dredging at the Plainwell Impoundment on the Kalamazoo River. The
cleanup work is being performed by contractors hired by responsible
parties Millennium Holdings LLC and Georgia-Pacific LLC. Dredging is
proceeding on schedule and since work began in early June, nearly 6,200
cubic yards or 180 truckloads of PCB-contaminated sediment (mud) have
been removed from the river and nearby banks. PCBs are polychlorinated
biphenyls, a chemical compound commonly used by industry that at high
concentrations and exposures can cause illness in humans and wildlife.

The Plainwell waste is being divided into sediment containing 50 parts per
million (ppm) or more of PCBs and material with lower concentrations.
Under the federal Toxic Substances and Control Act, EPA regulates the
use, storage and disposal of sediment with PCB concentrations exceeding
50 ppm. One part PCB per million parts sediment is a tiny amount, similar
to one second in 12 days. Of the total removed so far, about 1,035 cubic
yards of sediment with PCBs above the 50 ppm level have been sent to
Environmental Quality Co.'s Wayne Disposal Landfill in Belleville, Mich.
Another 5,145 cubic yards of sediment with less than 50 ppm PCBs, which
is considered nonhazardous waste, have been sent to Allied Waste's C and C
Landfill near Marshall, Mich.

Under an agreement this spring between EPA and the responsible companies,
Kalamazoo River sediment dug up in the Plainwell Impoundment cleanup
next year will be sent off-site to commercial landfills for disposal. Before
the Plainwell dredging work resumes in the spring of 2008, Millennium
Holdings and Georgia-Pacific will recommend for EPA approval commercial
disposal facilities that hold the proper permits to handle the contaminated
sediment removed from the river. Those facilities have not yet been
identified as the responsible parties negotiate with disposal companies.

When completed, the Plainwell cleanup will have removed about 132,000
cubic yards of sediment containing 4,400 pounds of PCBs. The estimated
cost of the removal action is $30 million and is expected to continue
through the fall of 2008. Site information including new photos is posted at
www.epa.gov/region5/sites/kalproject.

Supplemental sampling project

EPA cleanup projects performed under the Superfund program sometimes
include both near-term and long-term activities. On the Kalamazoo River
site, short-term cleanups - like the Plainwell dredging - are coordinated
by EPA's ""removal" section, while long-term pollution investigations and
cleanup projects are performed by EPA's "remedial" staff. Short-term


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removal projects are done when scientists conclude
contamination threatens people and wildlife with
imminent exposure to dangerous substances. The
PCBs lying unprotected in the mud of the Plainwcll
Impoundment are thought to pose just such a threat to
people and to animals that eat fish that have swallowed
the chemical compound.

While the Plainwell dredging proceeds, the Superfund
remedial process continues on other sections of the
river. Under another agreement with EPA, Millennium
Holdings and Georgia-Pacific will pay for a $15 million
supplemental sampling and analysis project along
the entire 80-mile length of the site. The Kalamazoo
River Superfund area stretches from Saugatuck on
Lake Michigan to the Morrow Dam. EPA believes this
additional sampling and analysis must be completed
before any final cleanup decisions can be made for the
Kalamazoo River. The sampling in this comprehensive
project will initially target the river reach between the
Morrow and Plainwell dams, including Portage Creek.
The study will identify the extent and location of PCB
contamination along the river.

Other cleanup actions

In addition to the removal action at the Plainwell
Impoundment, cleanup developments on other parts of the
Kalamazoo River site this summer include:

•	EPA is reviewing an MDEQ study on the nature
and extent of contamination at the Allied Paper
Landfill. When the review is completed this fall, the
potentially responsible parties will use the study to
develop cleanup alternatives for the landfill. After
the alternatives are developed, EPA will issue a
document called a proposed plan that will be made
available for public review and comment.

•	For the Willow Boulevard/A-Site Landfill, EPA has
begun negotiations with the potentially responsible
parties for designing and implementing the cleanup
plan developed for the landfill. Work 011 the cleanup
plan, which includes capping the landfill and
installing a monitoring network, is expected to begin
in 2008.

•	Weyerhaeuser has begun work on the erosion control
system at the 121'1 Street Landfill under the terms

of its agreement with EPA to design and implement
the cleanup remedy for this part of the Kalamazoo
River site. Weyerhaeuser will dig up contaminated
sediment from the channel next to the landfill, place
sediment in the landfill, and re-grade the eastern
edge of the facility that lies alongside the channel.

The new slope will be constructed to prevent erosion
of the landfill when the river is rerouted to its
original channel, which is part of the design for the
Plainwcll Impoundment removal action.

•	Weyerhaeuser has also agreed—to investigate and
clean up the Plainwcll Mill property—to remove
PCB-contam mated floodplains on the river banks
adjacent to the mill. EPA and MDEQ are reviewing
plans for an in-depth examination of the nature and
extent of hazardous waste at the Plainwell Mill.

•	Georgia-Pacific completed the removal of hazardous
waste from certain areas of its Kalamazoo mill

and sediment from nearby floodplains. Most of
this waste was consolidated with the material in
the Willow Boulevard/A-Site Landfill and will be
capped as part of the final cleanup for that part of the
Kalamazoo site.

Information libraries

The public can read documents related to the Kalamazoo
River Superfund site at the following places:

Kalamazoo Public Library
315 S. Rose St.

Kalamazoo

Charles Ransom Library
80 S. Sherwood Ave.

Plainwcll

Allegan Public Library
331 Hubbard St.

Allegan

Otsego District Library
219 S. Farmer St.

Otsego

Saugatuck-Douglas Library

10 Mixer St.

Douglas

Waldo Library
Western Michigan University
903 W. Michigan Ave.

Kalamazoo

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-COFFER DAM AREA 2

REMOVAL
AREA 9A

REMOVAL
AREA 6A

REMOVAL
AREA 13A

REMOVAL
AREA 8

REMOVAL
AREA 7

REMOVAL
AREA 10A

REMOVAL
AREAS

REMOVAL
AREA 13B

REMOVAL
AREA 12A

REMOVAL <
AREA "MA \
UPLAND
• AREA MAI

REM OVAL^Su ^ISLAND 3
AREA 66

UPLAND X
AREA 12A1

/ MID-CHANNEL AREA C
JPLAND AREA 10B1

REMOVAL
AREA4A

AREA'

REMOVAL
AREA 10B

REMOVAL
AREA 4B.

MID-CHANNEL
AREA B

REMOVAL
AREA 11B

REMOVAL
AREA 3A

Map courtesy of the Kalamazoo River Study Group

Targeted Removal Areas—Former Plainwell Impoundment

What are PCBs?

PCBs are a group of toxic chemicals that were produced
in the United States between 1929 and 1978 for
use primarily as industrial coolants, insulators, and
lubricants. PCBs were used in hundreds of industrial
and commercial applications including carbonless
copy paper—which contributed to the Kalamazoo
River contamination—and many other applications
because they were stable and resisted wear and
chemical breakdown.

The same chemical properties that made PCBs useful
to industry are now responsible for persistent levels
of PCBs remaining in the environment, including the
Kalamazoo River. PCBs last in the environment because
they adhere readily to organic material m sediment and
soil and tend to build up in the fatty tissue of fish and
other animals. PCBs have been demonstrated to cause a
variety of adverse health effects in animals. PCBs cause
cancer and noncancer health effects on the immune,
reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. Studies
suggest PCBs have similar effects on people.

The different health effects of PCBs may be
interrelated, as alterations in one system may have
significant implications for other systems of the body.
The potential adverse environmental and health effects
of PCBs were not well understood until 1977, when
the government banned most uses of PCBs.

On the Web:

epa.gov/region5/sites/kalproject/

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Plainwell PCB Cleanup
Proceeding On Schedule

(details inside)


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