In 1990, the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River was declared a Superfund site

Superfund

Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...

 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo, Michigan

The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

 is located on the southwestern side of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. A three mile section of Portage Creek 42°17′43"N 85°34′23"W flows into the Kalamazoo River

Kalamazoo River

The Kalamazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Michigan. The river is long from the junction of its North and South branches to its mouth at Lake Michigan, with a total length extending to when one includes the South Branch...

 which is also contaminated. The Kalamazoo River flows directly into Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

. A Superfund site is an abandoned site with significant amounts of toxic waste. The EPA and companies responsible for the waste take remediation efforts to reduce hazardous content. The Kalamazoo River Superfund site is contaminated by PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) due to a variety of paper mills waste and other waste disposal into the river. PCBs can have harmful effects on the river wildlife and humans .

History

After the Industrial Revolution many paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

s sprouted up along the river were later found to be the cause of PCB contamination . A release of a photograph on the cover of Life Magazine, depicting the state of Kalamazoo River in 1953, with massive amounts of floating dead fish, a huge public interest in the health of the river followed . The Kalamazoo Superfund site was listed on the National Priorities List on August 30, 1990 after much work by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The First Cleanup Action was considered initiated in the end of 1990 .

PCB Contamination

Polychlorinated biphenyl

Polychlorinated biphenyl

Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...

s are a wide array of now-banned man-made organic chemicals, with a variety of industrial applications. In the case of the Kalamazoo River Superfund Site most PCBs are a result of the recycling of carbonless copy paper, which occurred mostly during the 1970s. This process released the PCBs into the environment, via dumping waste into the river. PCBs were made from 1929 to 1979, when the Toxic Substance Control Act implemented a PCB ban .

Health Risks

PCBs are likely human carcinogens. Carcinogens are substances that increase the chance of cancer. The form of PCB in the environment usually takes on a more toxic form than originally released. PCBs can also cause detrimental effects to the immune system including decreased resistance to infections. Reproductive and endocrine systems can also be disrupted . Since PCBs adhere to organic material they are persistent molecules that do not easily breakdown in the environment. PCBs in the Kalamazoo River adhere to the fatty tissue of fish and over time bioaccumulate. Bioaccumulation is the process of a buildup of a chemical, PCBs in this case, having higher concentrations in organisms higher on the food chain. This allows PCBs to travel into humans who ingest the fatty fish, which have accumulated higher levels of PCBs. Reports released discuss the amount of fish and what type in the Kalamazoo area are safe for consumption . A Health report conducted by the Michigan Department of Health found that the current state of the Kalamazoo River is safe for recreational use even with some PCB contamination. Exposure to the Kalamazoo River through recreation, people experience short dermal and potential ingestion, with minimal interaction with sediments or particles containing significant PCB levels .

Kalamazoo River

The Kalamazoo River makes up a large portion of the Kalamazoo River Watershed, which spans about 162 miles. The watershed feeds into Lake Michigan. The 80 miles of the Kalamazoo River and Portage Creek is divided into five sections known as Operable Units (OU). The five operable units are as follows: Allied Paper/ Bryant Mill Pond (1), Willow Boulevard and A-Site Landfill (2), King Highway Landfill (3), 12th Street Landfill (4), and the Portage Creek (5). This allows for an easier way to divide up the rather expansive site. Portage Creek is southwest of Kalamazoo connecting to the Kalamazoo River right near the King’s Highway Operable Unit. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is state department in charge of managing the Superfund site. They work with the EPA and regional groups on research and remediation efforts.

CERCLA/ Superfund

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was set forth in 1980 in response to the Love Canal incident in New York. CERCLA is an act that works to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites which release pollutants into the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the organization that is federally responsible for identifying and monitoring the cleanup of Superfund sites. These sites can cause health risks to humans usually drawing attention to them. In the Kalamazoo Superfund site, PCBs cause a potential risk to human health. The EPA works at the Kalamazoo Superfund site in conjunction with state and regional interest groups. Sites identified are often called Superfund sites, due to a collective fund which contains taxpayer money to use towards remediation. However this general fund no longer exists due to new regulations.

NPL

The National Priorities List allows for highly hazardous sites that need immediate remediation efforts to be addressed. For a site to achieve NPL status it goes through a rigid process. The Hazard Ranking System

Hazard Ranking System

The Hazard Ranking System is a scoring system used in the United States to evaluate potential relative risks to public health and the environment from releases or threatened releases of hazardous wastes at uncontrolled waste sites...

Package is a score given to substances deemed hazardous, based on severity and potential hazard to human health, including contamination of water and food sources. Also the impact on the natural ecosystem coming in contact with the hazardous substance is taken into account. A Hazard Ranking System Package score is based on a one-hundred point scale. A score of 28.5 or higher designates a site placement on the NPL. After a score is achieved it must then go through an approval process to receive NPL status .

PRP

The Potentially Responsible Party is an individual, corporation, or group that can be held financially responsible for the cleanup of the Superfund site. Any group that is in any way responsible can be charged some or all of the cost. Even if the hazardous substance was there before the current company arrived they can still be held responsible. H. Millennium Holdings, Plainwell Inc., and Georgia-Pacific Corporation are the past and present owners of paper facilities that contributed to the PCB contamination. All three of these companies are involved in the remediation, particularly covering the financial costs. These companies have now formed the Kalamazoo River Study Group (KRSG) which aids in the remediation of the site, particularly the Time Critical Removal Action ). Being held a potentially responsible party can end up being very costly. Georgia-Pacific and H. Millennium Holdings are now required by the EPA to clean up the Plainwell Impoundment Area, which will cost $21 million in 2007.

Remediation

Cleanup for Kalamazoo River Superfund site starts upstream and works downstream. The continuing PCB sources are first removed so that PCB levels will not further increase and spread into Lake Michigan. There is particular concern over continuing release of PCBs in the Bryant Mill Pond area. In response an action was expedited by the EPA in order to remove the PCB sediments. H.M. Holdings, one of the responsible parties paid for a portion of this remediation. This removal began in June 1998 and lasted until May 1999. This removal cost $7.5 million. After water diversion and sediment removal the PCB concentrations were found lower than 1 ppm (parts per million). The EPA released a Remedial Investigation report for the Allied Disposal site in 2008. This report is still being reviewed, with varying options of action for the remaining PCB concentrations still remaining . The most common option for PCB cleanup is called “monitored natural attenuation”, by the EPA. This natural process uses microbes and other forms to clean up the Superfund sites. Such a method can take decades to be effective but is minimally invasive to the environment. Two of the Operable Units, sections of the Superfund site, King Highway Landfill and Allied Inc., had sheet pile and caps installed. Sheet piles are used to minimize soil erosion in the river and act as a barrier between the landfill and river. Usually concrete, wood or steel is used. This method does not remove the PCB but acts as a protective layering containing them. Time Critical Removal Action was declared in spring 2007 at the Plainwell site. Currently the area of the Kalamazoo River between Plainwell and Otsego is currently unavailable to the public while remediation takes place. Removal includes sediment removal and reintroduction of native plants. The contaminated waste must be disposed of properly. Anything containing PCB concentration higher than 50 ppm (parts per million) is considered hazardous and is disposed of in Bellville’s Environmental Quality Corporation Wayne Disposal Landfill. This is a carefully monitored landfill that stores exclusively hazardous waste. Most of the waste however has a lower PCB concentration and can be disposed of at nearby landfills, such as Marshall Landfill.