KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing deleting a 6-acre portion of the Allied Paper, Incorporated/Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River site in Kalamazoo from the Superfund National Priorities List, the list of the most contaminated sites in the nation.
The agency has determined that cleanup is complete in two areas within the former landfill known as Operable Unit 2. Those areas are east of Davis Creek and the non-easement part of the area east of the Davis Creek extension area. That excludes the sewer and unfenced phone line easement portions of the area east of the extension area.
Historically, the Kalamazoo River was used as a power source and waste disposal site for the paper mills and the communities adjacent to the river. The portion of the site proposed for delisting includes a landfill that received waste such as carbonless copy paper contaminated with chemicals known as PCBs. In the early 1970s, PCBs were identified as a problem in the Kalamazoo River.
In 1990, in response to the nature and extent of PCB contamination, the site was added to the NPL. Since then, EPA, working along with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, has cleaned up three of the six operable units, removed nearly 470,000 cubic yards of contaminated material from the site, cleaned up and restored about twelve miles of the Kalamazoo River and banks, and capped 82 acres worth of contaminated material.
EPA’s comment period begins February 16, 2024, and closes March 18, 2024. The public can submit comments through an email to cibulskis.karen@epa.gov or online at www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-3004.
Comments