Fox River cleanup at risk
There has been considerable attention in the Great Lakes region to the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in the proposed 2018 budget. This should be of great concern to all residents of the region, but it is by no means the only proposal that would slow down or set back protection for the people of the Great Lakes.
On the lower Fox River, decades of releasing paper production wastes contaminated the river bottom with dangerous polychlorinated biphenyls — a class of persistent toxic chemicals long banned in the United States and worldwide under international agreement.
In 1980, Congress passed the “Superfund” law, giving the Environmental Protection Agency authority to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances such as dioxins, PCBs and lead. The law provided that EPA could order those who caused the contamination to do the cleanup, or, if responsible parties couldn’t be identified, lacked adequate resources or refused to act, EPA could do so and recover whatever funds it could from those who caused the pollution.
Thanks to the EPA, the state of Wisconsin, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice, most of the contaminated sediments in the lower Fox River have been removed and safely managed. Habitat has been restored. The cleanup has been a huge undertaking, and work continues on the final phase.
State Sen. Bob Cowles (R-Green Bay) recently praised the cleanup progress, noting, “The number of boats fishing right now on the lower Fox is amazing — they’re landing walleye and musky. I remember when only carp could survive in this part of the river. EPA and Wisconsin DNR were an effective partnership in moving the cleanup forward, but it couldn’t have happened without EPA.”
A number of companies were responsible for the contamination and initially complied with orders to clean up the contamination. Responsible parties later balked and challenged EPA in federal court. After the court ruled in EPA’s favor, the agency and Wisconsin managed the effort.
At least $300 million in contracts have been invested locally, and 35 to 140 people have been employed annually in cleanup-related jobs since 2004. Cleaning up the Fox has resulted in significant environmental, public health and economic benefits to communities in northeastern Wisconsin. This billion-dollar cleanup cost is not being borne by taxpayers but by companies that disposed PCB waste in the river. The Great Lakes also will benefit significantly from the cleanup.
Nationally, many sites that once were contam- inated have been redeveloped. EPA has evaluated 458 of the 850 such sites and found that some 4,700 businesses were operating at these sites in 2016. These businesses’ ongoing operations generated annual sales of $34 billion and employed more than 131,000 people who earned a combined income of $9.2 billion.
Across the U.S., there are hundreds of areas where cleanup work is needed. Every month, new sites that were polluted by historical activities are discovered. Reducing risks to people living near these sites and returning the contaminated lands and waters to productive use will require significant resources. Fewer resources for this work mean it will take longer to make the sites safe and productive. The administration has proposed cutting the Superfund budget of just over $1 billion by $333 million. This reduction is in line with the 34% reduction proposed for EPA overall.
We encourage our Great Lakes neighbors to contact their elected representatives and ask them to restore adequate funding to EPA to protect our health and natural resources. It is a wise investment in our future. Dave Ullrich served as deputy regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Chicago from 1992 to 2003. Scott Hassett was Wisconsin secretary of the Department of Natural Resources from 2003 to 2007.