GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – It only took 16 years and about $1 billion, but dredging of the Fox River is now complete.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler stopped in Green Bay Wednesday morning to make the official announcement.
“The Great Lakes are an important environmental water resource for everyone in the country. They are the crown jewel of our water system here, and it’s so important that we make sure that they are revitalized and rehabilitated,” Wheeler said. “This is considered by many to be the largest PCB clean up in the world…One of the largest Superfund river sediment cleanup projects ever completed in the United States.”
The effort began in 1998. The actual dredging started in 2004, and finished on June 2nd, 2020.
“For anyone who’s spent any part of their life in the Fox River Valley, the project has always been going on in the background. But now the dredging is done, and I’m told the finishing touches to the project will be completed by months end,” Wheeler said. “Like many places along the Great Lakes, this area was utilized by industry and it spawned great thriving communities. But unfortunately, the industry was less aware of the negative effects of many of the chemicals they used in years passed.”
Wheeler added that over those years, the area has seen a lot of changes.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator announces the completion of the Fox River Cleanup Project in Green Bay. (PHOTO/WTAQ News)
“The 1990s being a great decade for the Packers as well as my beloved Cincinnati Reds, but we shouldn’t stay stuck in the 1990s though in terms of exposure to pollutants,” Wheeler said. “Work on the Fox River started in the late ’90s, when Brett Favre was still well-liked in this town. But things have changed. He went on to the Vikings, and the Fox River work that went on for two decades has finally been completed.”
The project has removed approximately 6.5 million cubic yards of PCBs from a 39-mile stretch of the lower Fox River. PCBs are chemicals that were once used in the papermaking process.
Several paper companies are paying for the cleanup. Wheeler said it took 15 court cases to sort out which companies would pay how much.
Since 2006, PCB water concentrations have been reduced by 90-percent upstream of the De Pere dam. That same area also saw PCB concentrations in sediment fall by about 90-percent, and concentrations in the walleye population fall by 65-percent.
All of those numbers will continue to be observed closely by local, state, and federal organizations.
“We will continue to monitor all those indicators to make sure that this remains clean, and if there are any issues, any problems, or we see any spikes anywhere – we will come back and investigate what’s causing that and make sure it gets addressed,” Wheeler said. “Superfund sites, we have continuous monitoring and we do a 5 year review of all the data. But we can look at the data is it’s coming in. It’s either reviewed on a regular basis by the PRPs or by the state or by the EPA.”
Wheeler estimated that about four of every ten Americans, as well as six of ten Canadians, live in close proximity to the Great Lakes. He hopes to use Green Bay as an example for other communities along the shoreline as they work on similar efforts.
“Our mission at EPA is straightforward – ensure that all Americans regardless of their zip code have clean air, clean water, and clean land,” Wheeler said. “This great city with its great history now has a clean water front with tremendous economic potential it can be redeveloped in ways that could never have been considered before.”
While Wheeler says they don’t specifically track economic benefits of projects like the Fox River Cleanup, he says every dollar invested into the Brownfield Grant program generates $15 of further investment by the private sector. Locations along the river in Green Bay have received about $2 million in Brownfield Grants. He adds that recreational benefits – like clean fishing, boating, and swimming areas – are just as important, but can’t necessarily be tracked by numbers.
